


Insert Title Here

by loveshiiki



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Illness, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Psychological Disorder, Romance, Suicide Attempt, Writer, mention of suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2018-10-23 02:36:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10710405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveshiiki/pseuds/loveshiiki
Summary: Sasuke Uchiha is a young writer that needs to change his perspective on life if he wants to keep his career. A new encounter might be what he needs to help him, but with everything happening in his life even this might not be enough.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is not my first fanfiction, although it is the first time I write one in English. I don't have any beta so there is a risk of spelling mistakes(adding this to the fact that I hate proof reading). I came across this idea for a story while I was procrastinating my study, making me fall deeper into the sin of procrastination.  
> I will add tag as I go because I don't want any spoilers, but be warned that there is a really HIGH risk of description of sexual relationships between two men. Enjoy!

“I don't do romance!”

Uchiha Sasuke was sitting in his publisher's office. It's barely 9 in the morning and everything seemed to be going to hell. It's not like he didn't saw it coming, his ratings have been going down since the publication of his 4th book. However, he never thought that his publisher would ask him to completely change his style if he wanted to keep being published.

“I'm not asking you to do romance.” Kakashi said, looking at him through his glasses. “I just want you to be a little less dark and a little less predictable”

Sasuke was fuming but he was not going to let Kakashi see that. He took a deep breath to stay calm before talking again. “What do you mean ‘less predictable?’”

Kakashi sighed. “Look Sasuke, it’s just that… It’s always the same thing with you: Everyone dies. It was catchy in your first books but it’s not anymore. Whenever someone sees your name on the cover of a book, they know that their favorite characters are going to die and it’s not appealing to them anymore.”

Sasuke clenched his fists, looking straight at Kakashi with a murderous glare. “My three first books were bestsellers across the world.”

“Of course they were. You’re a good writer and readers love novelty. But that’s the thing, it’s not novelty anymore. Your three first books were loved, but the three last ones have been disastrous. At first, I thought maybe it was some miscalculations, but the last one is just a confirmation of what I was scared of. You’re not selling anymore.”

“So what now? Are you terminating my contract?”

Kakashi shook his head. “No, I’m not. According to your contract, you have only one book left with us. I have more money to lose in lawyers if I terminate it than if I publish another book that doesn’t sell. What I want is to make a deal with you. If you can write something different enough for me to be surprised by the way it ends, I will give you 15% more on the sale profits and offer you a new contract with us. Are you interested?”

“I can’t promise anything.” Sasuke stood up and left the office, barely abstaining from slamming the door shut on his way out.

Kakashi sat silently as his protégé left his office. He had met Sasuke 5 years ago during a reading session. He had just started his publishing house with one of his good friend and they were doing some recruitment at a local coffee shop. Sasuke had been there, and his work had entranced Kakashi and Obito.

Sasuke was 19 then, and he was freshly graduated. A literal genius with a bachelor degree in Biology. He was using all his knowledge on the human body to write some of the darkest scenes that Kakashi had ever read, and that day, in a small coffee shop in Kingston, Kakashi knew he needed to be the one to publish his works.

Sasuke had been recalcitrant at first. He had only read in front of everyone because his brother had dared him to, he didn’t want anybody else to read his works. However, with a lot of obstination and the promise of a secret pen name, Kakashi had convinced him. And then, during the five following years, Sasuke had wrote several books while pursuing his Phd in human anatomy.

His first three books had been amazing. They had been dark, obviously, but there had been just enough light to compensate the darkness and to make them a delight to read for those who favored drama and horror.

Everything changed with the fourth, fifth, and sixth books. Sasuke’s writing became more dark, more sloppy, and there was no trace of the suspense that he was suppose to be the master of. His characters died in awfully predictable ways and the whole story seemed to be only a cascade of unfortunate events leading to their death. There was no real plot, nothing to held onto.  

That’s why Kakashi woke up one morning and decided that it had to change. He was worried. Worried because they were not making a lot of profits, but also worried about Sasuke. If he and Sasuke were closer, he would have advised him to go see a therapist. However, considering Sasuke’s cold personality, forcing him to write something lighter was the best he could do to help. If the result was good and profitable, it was only a surprising side effect. Well… That’s what he would say if you asked him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's short, but it's more an introduction than a real chapter. In the future, chapters will be two or three times this lenght.  
> I don't know exactly when I'm going to post the next chapter, I do have a lot of final exams this week. However, it should be in the first week of May. I hope you liked this small beginning. See y'all!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aright so here is the second chapter. I made a small modification in where the fiction takes place. At first it was suppose to be in Montreal, but I move it to Kingston in Ontario. I don't know the city but its emplacement is going to help for the next chapters.
> 
> Warning: Possibility of trigger in the text in bold. There is an implication of a suicide attempt(it's not happening to any characters of this story, thus it is not in the tag).
> 
> Enjoy!

Sasuke entered his family house in a really bad mood following his meeting with Kakashi. He dropped his keys on the table near the door and kicked his shoes in the closet. It was hard to believe that Kakashi wanted to let him go. He had been so persistent 5 years ago, we could even say that he had annoyed Sasuke into saying yes. Sasuke surely would not be where he was without him, but it was the darkness in his writings that had attract Kakashi in the first place. It was not like he did not know what he was getting himself into.

He exhaled loudly and called his brother’s name. He wasn’t sure what Itachi’s schedule was for the day since he had left for Ottawa at 7 this morning, but with the absence of answer he could easily guess that Itachi had a trial today. It seemed that there was no one to complain to for the moment.

He walked into his kitchen and pulled two tomatoes out of the fridge. He carefully cut them in dice and put them in a small bowl before adding some pepper. This would do for lunch, he had some writing to do.

His bowl and a big glass of water in hand, he walked to his office. It used to be his father’s office before the accident. It had been hard for him to go into this room for a while but Itachi had almost force him to take it when he had become a writer. Every time he sat at the huge oak desk, he thought about his father. This was where his father had locked himself days on end, sometimes Sasuke didn’t see him for weeks because their schedules were so different. It had felt like something forbidden the first time he had set foot in here, 5 months after their death.

Sasuke shook his head to dissipate the thoughts and sat down with his food. _Let’s start with something short,_ Sasuke thought. _I’ll try writing a short story and I’ll see how it goes._ He took a pen and his notebook and started writing. Sasuke always preferred writing with a pen when he was home, it felt more familiar, like everything he was feeling was transmitted to the paper. He only wrote on his computer in public, the screen making it easier to hide from the rest of the world.

**_This story began on a sunny Saturday afternoon, Mr X. was in his kitchen cooking dinner for his wife, Mrs. X., and their three children. It was their family tradition. Every Saturday Mrs. X. would go pick the kid at karaté while Mr X. would cooked them a big dinner. Then they would spend the rest of the day watching goofy movies and playing board games. Mr. X. always let the others win._ **

**_Well he used to. Because this Saturday, like hundreds of Saturday before, nobody was coming home. And even if it had been 8 years since they all died in a car accident on their way back home, Mr. X. kept spending his Saturday afternoons making dinner for five. He set the table for five, and even serve their favorite drink in glasses where they used to sit._ **

**_It was time for him to start over, it had been almost a decade after all. Maybe there was something else for him in another place. He went upstairs hurriedly, deciding that today was his last Saturday spent remembering his past life._ **

**_He sat on what used to be his wife favorite rocking chair next to the window and closed the curtains. In the darkness of his room, a razor blade in hand, and thinking about everything he had lost he applied pressure to his already bandaged wrist and…_ **

Sasuke threw his pen across the room, huffed angrily, and gripped his hair with both hands. “ Dammit Sasuke, he said something lighter!”

 

* * *

 

“The prosecution would like to call its next witness to the stand, Dr. Naruto Uzumaki.”

One of the officers standing next to the entrance opened the door, and a young man walked into the courtroom. Everyone in the room had eyes on him as he walked slowly to the stand. He nodded to the prosecution lawyer, Hashirama Senju, as he passed him and went to sit on the right side of the judge, facing the crowd.

Senju walked around his table and stood in the middle of the room, facing the jury. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Dr. Uzumaki is a well-known forensic psychologist and he accepted to bring his expertise to the case. He is going to share is thoughts on Mr. Hoshigaki's actions and personality.”

The defense lawyer, Itachi Uchiha, raised fast to his feet after hearing that. “Objection your Honor! There was no mention of such an expert on the witnesses list.”

“Overruled. The prosecution came to me several weeks ago to add this witness to the trial. They asked that Dr. Uzumaki observed the entirety of the trial then reports back. The idea was approved by me and two other judges in this city.” He looked to his right. “You can start Dr. Uzumaki.”

Naruto cleared his throat and started. “I was asked to observe this trial because the defendant is pleading guilty but says he was “out of his mind” at the moment of the crime. There is no one to support this saying, thus I observed his behaviors during trial. It happens often that a criminal tries to plead guilty while using the mental disease card to have a reduced sentence in a place less secure, and obviously this plea is not always true. Cases where people acted because they were mentally unstable have one main thing in common: The ill ones always feel guilty. Mr. Hoshigaki showed no sign of regrets during the past weeks, even when members of the victim's family testified in tears.”

Naruto looked around the room, trying to put more emphasis on his sayings. “Furthermore, after reading his entire files, I had a conversation with the defendant about his previous crimes and his life in general.” He looked at Itachi and continued. “None of my questions were about the present crime, thus it was judged correct for Mr. Hoshigaki to answer the questions he was willing to answer.”

Naruto started to sweat in his shirt. The defense lawyer was looking at him like a hawk. “ During our talk, I made an assessment of his personality. Since his adolescence, Mr. Hoshigaki showed lack of conscience as he began to lie, steal, and fight. He is impulsive, has an inability to form lasting relationship with others, and shows a deficit in social emotion such as love, shame, empathy, and more importantly in this case, guilt. I have with me a more complete report that I wish for the judge and the jury to read, but my conclusion is that Mr. Hoshigaki does suffer from a psychological disorder. He is what we would call a psychopath.” Naruto ended.

“Will the prosecution add anything to this testimony?” the judge asked.

Senju was trying to conceal the smile on his face, with no success. “No need your Honor.”

Uchiha was out of his seat before the judge had time to ask him the same question. “ I have some interrogations for Dr. Uzumaki if I may.” The judge nodded at Itachi to continue and the latter placed himself in front of Naruto.

“We are not here to decide whether my client is guilty or not, Dr. Uzumaki. Kisame Hoshigaki has already confessed to the murder of Might Guy. However, we are trying to have a reduced sentence since my client was not himself at the time of the murder. You just admitted that some psychological disorder was the cause of it.”

Naruto sighed heavily and had to resist the need to cross his arms in front of him. “Psychopathy, like sociopathy, is an Antisocial Personality Disorder. Several personality traits are needed to be diagnosed with this type of disorder but being a murderer is not necessary. It is completely possible for someone diagnosed with psychopathy to never kill or even intentionally hurt someone. This is why this disorder cannot be use as an out.”

“The let me ask another question,” Itachi started. “How does someone become a psychopath?”

Naruto sat straighter in his chair, he had the impression that the defense attorney was laying a trap for him to fall into. “You cannot become a psychopath, you are born one.”

“You are saying that there is some kind of psychopath gene inside his DNA?” Naruto nodded reluctantly and Itachi looked at the jury. “Can we really put the full blame on this man. Yes, he did something very wrong but it was partly due to his genes. He did not choose to become a psychopath.”

Itachi stayed silent for a little while, taking the time to look at each member of the jury before turning his back on them. “The defense rests.”

Naruto stood up and took a seat in the room while the prosecution called its last witness, the defendant. Hoshigaki’s expression was calm, it had been like this since day one of trial. His face did not change an iota as the prosecutor stood in front of him.

“Tell me, Mr. Hoshigaki. What are you feeling right now?"

Itachi stood up. “Objection your Honor! This is not a therapy session.”

The judge gave Uchiha a sour look but conceded. “Sustained.”

“Let me rephrase my question. Is it fair to say that your lack of empathy and guilt could cause you to kill again?” asked Senju. Hoshigaki sat behind the stand, impassible.

“Objection! He is leading the witness” shouted Itachi. 

“Withdrawn. No further questions your Honor.” Senju bowed to the judge and went back to his table.

There was a loud chatter in the courtroom as the trial came to an end. The judge had to struck his gavel twice to gain silence again. “The jury and I will now retreat. If no consensus is made by 5 pm, the verdict will be given tomorrow morning.”

 

* * *

 

Naruto had not waited for the verdict. He left the courtroom knowing that he had done his job and hoping for the best. Senju had promised to text him when the verdict was given, there was no reason to sit there waiting with the rest of the crowd. Especially when it was not even sure that the decision would be made today.

It was 4:50 pm when he received the message:

_Twenty minutes ago, Kisame Hoshigaki was being sentenced to 25 years of prison for first degree murder. Thanks to you_

The relief was intense and Naruto could not help himself from laughing a little. He was still giggling silently when someone knocked on his door five minutes later. Thinking it was his secretary coming to say goodbye he shouted that the door was unlock.

The door opened on a man with long dark hair, wearing a well tailored suit, and looking as if he owned the place.

“Uchiha Itachi.” Naruto stated, surprised. “I guess you’re here to talk about what happened during the - ” Naruto started, standing up.

Itachi shook his head and interrupted him. “I’m here for far more personal reasons and I thought you could be of help.” He walked inside the bright office, closing the door behind him, and laid on the lounge chair, indicating Naruto to sit with a hand.

Naruto sat and reclined into his office chair, a serious expression on his face. “What can I do for you?"

Itachi crossed his arms in front of him and looked Naruto right in the eyes. “I’m dying and I need someone to talk to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want to say that I have no idea how it really does work inside a courthouse. I’m pretty sure bringing an expert without the knowledge of one or the other side is not accepted but whatever, this is just a story. I am also not a psychologist but I am doing my best with the small knowledge I have from college. 
> 
> I should post next week, but no promises. See y'all!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Talk about cancer. I know it can be hard on some people.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Before we start, I need you to know that I am not specialized in palliative care. I’m a forensic psychologist and I do some counselling when I don’t have any cases to work on.” Naruto said.

He was still trying to hide his surprise at seeing one of the best lawyer of the country sitting in the seat across from him. If someone had told him that he would have Itachi Uchiha asking for his professional help, he probably would have laugh hysterically.

“I’m aware of that. Believe me I looked you up before coming here.” Itachi stood up from the chair and started pacing in Naruto’s office.

Naruto watched Itachi walk around his office and did not say a word. He was not going to push him into saying anything. If Itachi needed to gather his courage or to organize his thoughts, he could take all the time he wanted. Naruto did not have any other clients afterward and pressing Itachi did not seem like a good idea.

It took at least 10 minutes before Itachi talked again. “Could you not write what I’m saying? I’d rather have this completely off records.”

“Of course.” Naruto pushed himself away from his desk and stood up. He walked around his desk and sat in one of his single seater couch. He felt that he had to come to Itachi as an equal and sitting behind his huge desk made him appear in power. This was definitely not the good approach with Itachi.

Itachi sighed and came to sit in a similar couch in front of Naruto. “I don’t really know how to begin…”

“Tell me about your diagnosis.”

Itachi crossed his legs and began. “Three weeks ago, I went to the hospital because I had a small car accident and I bumped my head on the wheel. It was something minor, no concussion or anything but they still ordered a CT scan. So I got in there with a bruise on my forehead and got out with a malignant glioma on my amygdala. It cannot be surgically removed.”

Naruto did not want to interrupt, but Itachi seemed to have a hard time saying more. “How advanced is it?”

“Stage 3. I had another scan a couple days ago and it’s growing. Fast. They think I might have 2 years left. Best case scenario, I have 3 or 4 more years but I spend the most of them on hard drugs and doing chemotherapy. I had time to adjust to the fact that I’m going to die.”

“Three weeks is hardly enough time to realize that your entire life is going to change. You might still be in shock. It often happens when people learn that they have an important illness.”

Itachi sighed and briefly closed his eyes. “Shock or not, I’m mostly worried about my baby brother.”

Naruto gave a short nod. “Yes, it can be as hard, sometimes even worst, for family members to learn about the disease.”

Itachi’s answer was a low whisper. “ I haven’t told him yet.”

“Are you planning on telling him?”

“Yes, of course! It’s just… He had a really hard time after our parents died in a car accident six years ago. He doesn’t really talk about it but I know he still hurts a lot because of this and I don’t want to rub more salt in the wound. He’s already so dark and sad. I am going to tell him, but I don’t know when. Or how.”

The way Itachi talked, it did not sound like the revelation was going to be in the near future. Naruto had heard from fellow psychologist that on occasion, people with lethal disease did not reveal it to their family and friends. They preferred to live the rest of their life fully without anyone worrying for them and would reveal the disease only when it was almost time to passed, or not at all. Naruto definitely did not know for sure how he would react if he was the one with the disease. However, he knew for sure that he would want to know if someone close to him was dying.

“There is no easy way to break this type of news to someone. I have this feeling that tells me that you want some advice on this from me, but I definitely cannot tell you the perfect way. Not everybody react the same way to such news, and I have no idea how your brother would react. If you had more time, waiting until your brother is in a better place could be good, but you don’t have time to wait.”

“Could you help him?” Itachi asked.

“ I don’t know. Therapy is not for everyone. If your brother does not want help, there’s nothing to be done.”

“What if I convince him, could you help in such short time?”

“It’s possible. Benefits can follow the first session and we usually know if it’s going to last after a couple months of biweekly meetings. Your brother will need to be willing. You can give him a little push to help, but in the end it has to be his decision.”

Itachi exhaled. “I guess I’ll have to use my persuasive power to show him that he needs it. It’s going to be hard, he’s definitely not the sharing type.”

Naruto chuckled. “I believe that.”

Itachi smiled and looked at his watch. “Oh and Itachi, if your brother does come in here, you know that I can’t tell you about any progress we make. I can’t even tell you that he came.” Naruto added.

“Of course, Dr Uzumaki.” Itachi stood and extended his hand. “I think it’s time for me to leave. I’ll come back some day.”

Naruto stood and shook his hand. “Please, just Naruto. Would you call before our next… little chat. I wouldn’t want you to come all the way here when I’m not even there.” he said smiling.

Itachi smiled politely and took his leave.

* * *

Sasuke was still trying to write when he received a text from his brother around 8 pm:

_I’m done for the day, did you have dinner yet?_

Sasuke’s stomach rumbled, he had not thought to eat much this afternoon. He was too busy trying, and failing, to write something new. It was time for him to put his pen down and do something else. He could pick up the work where he left it tomorrow.

_No, want to meet at that Italian restaurant?_

_I’ll be there in thirty._

Sasuke stood and left his office. He should leave right away if he wanted to be there at the same time as Itachi. It was a short drive to the restaurant but the traffic tended to be heavier on Friday nights.

He quickly put his shoes and went to his blue metallic Mercedes AMT GT. He got there in twenty minute and was lucky enough to get a parking right next to the restaurant. There was still a lot of people around since Springer Market Square closed at 10 on Friday and parking places were often rare around it.

He went inside one of his favorite restaurant, _Casa Domenico,_ and asked the hostess a table for two. He did not have to look around to know that Itachi was not there yet, he would have text him if it was the case.

The hostess settled him near the window and brought water. Sasuke pulled his phone out and he barely had the time to text Itachi before he entered the restaurant looking at his phone.

Sasuke did not have to make a move, Itachi saw him the second he raised his eyes. He smiled at the hostess and joined Sasuke at the table.

“Hey, Sasuke! How was your day?” Itachi asked.

Sasuke grunted. “I’d rather you tell me about your trial for now. I need to eat something and what I have to say will make me lose my appetite.”

Itachi chuckled. “There’s not much to say.” He made a sign to the waitress nearby. “Let’s order first.”

The waitress came to their table with two menus. They both already knew what they wanted so they ordered right away.

“Alright…” Itachi started as the waitress walked away. “I lost my trial.”

Sasuke almost choked on his water. “You what?!”

“I lost. Drastically. It barely took the jury 30 minutes to reach the verdict.”

“What happened? I thought you were well prepared.”

Itachi sipped some lukewarm water. “The prosecution brought a witness without telling us. I was a little impressed, I didn’t know that Senju was such a sneaky man.”

“A single witness destroyed your entire case?”

“Yes, Sasuke. Don’t twist the knife will you?” Itachi responded. “The guy is a psychologist and he threw the word ‘psychopath’ in his testimony. Of course people got scared, pretty much everyone associate this word with ‘homicidal maniac’. I tried to cover it the best I could but it was all improvisation and I didn’t really have time to think about it.”

“Damn, he really got you.” Itachi glared at him but luckily they were interrupted by their waitress. They both thanked her and started eating in silence.

Half-way through his brasato, Itachi inquired again. “Well, what about you?”

Sasuke stopped eating and sat straight in his chair. “Nothing particularly good.”

Itachi stared at him with insistence to make him continue.

“Did you know that Kakashi was about to throw me an ultimatum? I know you speak with him sometimes.” Sasuke muttered.

“I did not know, but it was bound to happen. You’ve been working with Kakashi for five years now, I’m not surprised that horror and drama are not enough anymore.”

“Are you saying that I am not enough?” Sasuke said, raising his voice.

“Sasuke, of course you are. I don’t care if you are a writer, a doctor, or even a cook. I’m just putting myself in Kakashi’s shoes and I understand that a publisher would ask for a change if your books are not selling.”

Sasuke sighed and stabbed his roasted chicken breast with his fork. “Sorry, I know. It’s just… I tried but I can’t. My stories always end up messy.”

“Have you thought about consulting someone?”

Sasuke snorted. “Seriously? You want me to see a shrink, and what? Talk about how sad and difficult my life as a millionaire is? Fuck off, Itachi.”

“This is not about how rich you are! Since mother and father died…”

Sasuke interrupted him. “Let’s not talk about this.”

Sasuke putted his utensils down. “I’m not hungry anymore, I’ll head home.”

Sasuke stood and left the table, leaving Itachi alone with his food and wondering how in hell he was going to break out his bad news to his brother without broking him further.

* * *

 

“I swear to you I almost crap my pants in there, Kiba!” Naruto took a big gulp of beer.

Kiba was laughing under his breath as Naruto gesticulated while explaining the rest of his story. “Just calm down, bro. It’s not like it was your first rodeo, you’ve done trials hundreds of time before!”

“It’s not the same!” Naruto half shouted. “I was testifying against Itachi Uchiha. Itachi Uchiha, Kiba. I totally demolished his defense.” Naruto was whispering by the end of his sentence.

Kiba sighed and shook his head. “You do this all the time! I don’t see why this time should be different. It’s not like the dude is going to come kill you in your sleep.”

Naruto just banged his head on the bar and didn’t answer. Of course he was a little upset about the trial this morning. Itachi Uchiha was a legend amongst lawyers and his hands had became wet the second he saw him at the defense table, but that was not what he was concerned about right now. Itachi had been in his office less than two hours ago and he could not tell anyone! What with patient confidentiality and all.

He was still surprised to be alive. When he had first saw the man at his door, Naruto had thought Itachi was there to settle things with him. After all, there was a lot of rumors around the court saying that the man was more than just a lawyer, that he had some big connections and was sometimes the mastermind behind his client’s crimes. Naruto certainly did not believed that after speaking with the man for several hours. Itachi definitely had the brain to be a criminal, but he was just too nice. Naruto was impressed by the man, especially after seeing him keeping complete composure while talking about his illness and his family.

“Talking about sleep, let’s get a cab before I pass out here.” Naruto left his stool with a swift jump and started walking towards the door.

Kiba grabbed his coat in a hurry and caught up to Naruto. “Dude, you had like half a beer and it’s barely 10 pm on a Friday night.”

Naruto held the door for Kiba to pass before him and smiled. “I guess fighting crimes makes you sleepy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, not a doctor. I'm working with Grey's Anatomy knowledge and my Biology of Cancer class.
> 
> Next chapter should be around the 28th. I'll be on vacation next week and there is no wifi. See y'all!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The meeting!

 

The sun was barely up when Sasuke woke up Saturday morning. It was 5:30 and he was feeling inspired after sleeping on it.

He slowly went up the stairs, still wearing his pajamas and careful not to make too much noise. He started the coffee maker and went to his office to pick up his notebook and pen. He wanted a change in environment today, so he took all of his writing tool, the carafe of freshly made coffee, and a mug then he went outside to get settled on the terrace.

He had wake up with a somewhat clear idea of what he wanted to do. It was a little different from all his other books, but it was still definitely not something romantic and soppy. He was going to write the story of a criminal, and most of the plot would occur inside a prison. It could work, he just had to make sure that his main protagonist did not end up in a bloody or a desperate state.

 He slowly started writing a draft. Writing pages after pages of ideas as the sun got higher in the sky and as the level of coffee left got low. He had lay out the basis when Itachi joined him on the terrace almost 4 hours later.

Itachi sat down next to Sasuke, a cup of tea in hands, as if nothing had happened the night before. 

“What are you writing?” He asked, taking a sip of his raspberry meringue tea.

“I woke up with an idea for my next book. I’ll have a lot of research to make it good though.” Sasuke did not even look at Itachi while answering. He just kept scribbling in his notebook, a look of concentration on his face.

“What is it about?”

Sasuke putted the final dot on his work and handed it to his brother. “It’s going to be inside a prison. I’ll need to find one to visit soon if I want this to be as realistic as possible.”

Itachi crossed his legs and started reading the pages. The idea seemed good to him and he could even help Sasuke if he needed some legal information. There was also something that he could do to make his brother forgets about his mishaps of yesterday. He had new right away that Sasuke would not be open to consulting a psychologist, thus his indignation was no surprise. It was not their style to apologize for such things but this would definitely make them even.

“This seems to have a lot of potential.” Itachi started. “I know the warden of a nearby prison pretty well. Maybe I could give him a call and ask him for a visit.”

“Yeah?” Sasuke asked a little dumbfound.

“Of course, I’ll call him right away. When would be a good time?”

“As soon as possible.”

Sasuke smirked and gulped down the rest of his coffee. This day would be better than the last.

* * *

Naruto woke up early, but still late, on Saturday morning. He had to be at the prison for works before 9 and it took almost an hour to get there from his condo. He jumped out of his bed and quickly putted the clothes he had lay out the day before. He hurriedly took his messenger bag and ran out with an apple and his keys in hands. 

Naruto was still not used of working on Saturdays. His schedule had changed a couple months ago and since then what was his Friday afternoon at Millhaven Institution became his Saturday morning at the jail. Luckily, Naruto loved his job enough to work six days a week. He spent his entire Wednesdays and his Saturday mornings doing consultation at the maximum security prison and the rest of his weeks were spent between court and personal consultation.

When Naruto got to the prison, he was surprised to see that it was not Gaara waiting for him at the entrance but another correctional officer he had never seen before. The other seemed to know him but Naruto still introduced himself politely. Pretty much everyone knew him around here, he had been coming around two times per week for years.

The C.O. quickly walked him outside towards his first appointment. “The prisoner has already been moved to your meeting place.”

Naruto subtly rolled his eyes. The man sounded so formal with him, he was probably new around here. Naruto was friend with pretty much everyone in the prison.

“Alright. Sorry, I am a little late I guess.” Naruto tittered, scratching his head with his right hand.

The C.O looked at him out of the corner of his eyes and stopped in front of a door before nodding and opening it. Naruto stepped through the door first, followed by his escort.

He walked toward the steel table in the middle of the room where a young man with long blond hair already sat, cuffed to the table.

“Naruto, my man, I thought you wouldn’t come.” The cuffed man said, a huge smile on his face.

Naruto putted his messenger bag next to the table and sat across the man. “I would not miss our date for anything in the world, Deidara!”

Deidara’s eyes sparkled with amusement as he laughed softly. When he calmed down, he looked at the third man in the room and indicated his wrists.

“You’re gonna remove them or not?”

The man shook his head negatively and finally closed the door behind him, standing guard right in front of it. Deidara frown and Naruto stood up, quickly walking toward the guard.

“What the hell are you doing?” He whispered.

“Following procedures.” The man answered loudly.

Naruto grabbed his arm and turned him away, both their back now facing Deidara.

“You’re not supposed to stay in the room when I’m with a patient, especially not with this one.”

The man lowered his voice. “I can’t leave a civilian alone with a prisoner. It’s standard procedure and this one is dangerous.”

Naruto sighed. “Look, Deidara and I, we have an arrangement. He talks as long as he is not cuff and that we are alone in the room. You’ll need to uncuff him and step outside.”

“I can’t.” The man did not budged.

Naruto was getting angry and he let it show. He answered the man with his most intimidating voice. “I can see that Gaara did not brief you on how I work, but believe me, if you don’t do as I say I’m gonna kick you out of this room myself. You’re not going to break the trust I established after long hours of work, understood?”

The man gulped and nodded. Naruto extended his hand to him and the guard quickly gave him the key to the cuff.

“Now wait outside, I’ll knock when I’m done.” Naruto turned back to Deidara and as he started walking back to the center of the room, he heard the final click of the door shutting.

“That was impressive.” Deidara said.

Naruto smiled. He had not been as quiet at the end of the conversation, it was no surprise that Deidara had heard pretty much everything he had said. He threw the key to Deidara and sat back in front of him.

“I’m touched to see that you care enough to threaten the younglings around here.”

Naruto laughed. “Of course, I care.”

Naruto did care about Deidara, he cared about all of his patients. He usually did not show it much, but with Deidara he had too. Deidara had been Naruto’s first real case and Naruto had diagnosed him with Histrionic Personality Disorder with a touch of narcissism after thoroughly reading his case and after long discussions.

It took a really long time to bring them both where they were but it had been worth it. Deidara still sought attention and tended to behave dramatically but he was less prone to violence when things did not get his way. Five years ago, he had set up a bomb inside a hospital because his girlfriend of the moment was too busy with her work to pay attention to him. The detonation had killed 23 persons and had gravely injured 40 others.

Deidara was still dangerous to other, but by now Naruto knew how to handle his need. He was always alone in the room with Deidara, because the latter needed all the attention focused on him. Naruto was not even able to take notes without profoundly annoying Deidara.

Naruto lightly tapped the tips of his finger together. “Anything exciting since the last time we saw each other?”

“I’m sure you already know, because you seem to know everything about me,” Deidara winked at him. “ I have been assigned to a new cellmate.”

Naruto smiled lightly. “Yes, I’ve heard. How is he?”

Deidara sighed noisily and raised his hands in the air. “He is horrible! He is some kind of French Canadian and he only speaks in French. I’ve had enough of him calling for ‘Dieu’ and saying shit about not being guilty. Why did you have to send Sasori away? At least this one had half a brain!”

Naruto putted his elbows on the table and leant toward Deidara. “You know Sasori was not doing well here. He approved his transfer to the regional psychiatric centre in Saskatoon.”

Deidara stomped his foot on the ground and screamed. “But I liked him! He wasn’t annoying and he thought I was interesting!”

It was rare for people with the same personality disorder as Deidara to care about someone else like Deidara had come to care for his old cellmate. The transfer had been a really hard decision to make for several reasons. First, he had form a link with Sasori and he thought that he could have help him on the long term. Second, Sasori was good for Deidara. His presence calmed him and helped him re modulated his comportment. However, the environment of the prison was no good for someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder like Sasori. In the two years that Sasori had been in Millhaven, Naruto had seen 2 other distinct personality states appeared in him. Sending him in a place where he could receive better treatment and live in a specific environment had been the best move to make.   

Deidara violently stood up from his chair and started pacing on his side of the table. “And after that you dare come in here and say you care about us!” He came in front of Naruto’s chair and putted his hands on the armrests, near the other man's arms.

“YOU DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT US!” He sputtered in Naruto’s face.

Naruto had not thought that this would degenerate so quickly. He was not sure what to say and Deidara seemed too far gone to be rationalized with words. Surprisingly Naruto was still not scared of him.

Naruto looked Deidara in the eyes and slowly raised his hands to put them on his forearms. Touching patients, especially when they were considered dangerous, was only for desperate situation and this definitely seemed like one in Naruto’s eyes. He could throw professionalism to the wind for now.

“I DO care.” Naruto said softly, putting more emphasis on the verb. “I knew that sending Sasori away would be hard on you at first, but it was the best thing I could do for him. You’re a great person, you’ll easily find someone else that thinks you are interesting, just like Sasori and I do.” Naruto did thought that Deidara had the potential to be a wonderful person, but he also knew for certain that the narcissistic side of him would like what he said.

Deidara smiled and went back to his seat, satisfied.

Naruto sighed internally. “Would you like to talk about something else now?”

“Let’s talk about the bitch.” Deidara said, a psychotic smile on his face.

 _Ah yes,_ Naruto thought. _The ex-girlfriend is always a good subject._

* * *

It turned out that as soon as possible was this afternoon. Itachi’s contact had told him that it was calm at the prison these days because they just had a riot the week prior, thus there was less risk of anything bad happening during the visit. Sasuke was a little bit nervous for his safety while being there, especially after the mention of the riot, but Itachi’s friend had told him that he would be perfectly safe and that his best correctional officer would be touring him. 

This is how Sasuke ended up parking his car in the small parking lots of Millhaven institution, after a 40 minutes ride. He had a little Walking Dead feeling when he saw the huge fences, but he putted his nervousness behind him and calmly walked the short distance to the gatehouse.

Two correctional officers were stationed inside and they were both heavily armed. One of them got closer to the window as Sasuke approached.

“Hi, I’m Sasuke Uchiha. I’m here for a visit.”

“Sorry sir but there is no visiting hours on Saturday, you’ll need to come back on Wednesday.” The C.O said.

“It’s fine, Shigezane. He has special authorization.” The newcomer had come from the back and Sasuke had to refrain himself from jumping when he first heard the hoarse voice.

Looking at him, Sasuke did not really understand why he was surprise. The man was probably not trying to be subtle. He was wearing the usual black uniform, a polo shirt with the establishment patches on both sleeves, cargo style BDU pants and a cap covering his bright red hair. On his right shoulder, just above what seemed to be an identification insignia, was a black radio. He also had a belt with a holster on the left side containing a 9mm Smith & Wesson and a badge on the right side.

The guy walked out and came to him with his right hand extended. “My name is Gaara No Sabaku and I’m the captain around here.”

Sasuke shook his hand firmly. “Sasuke Uchiha.”

Gaara nodded. “I’ll need to search you before we go in. The process is usually more complicated but the big boss vouched for you so just empty your pockets and a simple pat down should be fine.”

Sasuke knew this was going to happen, thus he only had his driver license for identification, his car remote, and his pen and notebook on him.

Gaara handed him everything back except for the pen. “I can’t let you go in with this pen. You might try to stab me.”

Sasuke looked at him blankly.

Gaara sighed, shook his head, and handed the pen to Sasuke. “That was a joke.” Sasuke didn’t even smile. “Alright, at least I can say I tried. Let’s go in.”

Gaara walked back inside the gatehouse with Sasuke on his trail. “I’m not a big talker so I’ll tell you the basis and if you have any questions feel free to ask and I’ll decide if I answer them.”

Sasuke looked around the small room. The two correctional officer seemed to be ignoring them. One of them was sitting in front of a small control panel and was looking in the direction of the parking lot and the other seemed to be on the lookout near the large window that show the inside court of the prison.

“You mentioned a more thorough search for visitor, how does it work?” Sasuke asked, his pen and notebook ready.

Gaara motioned him to follow and went to the door from where he had first arrived. It was another small room with seats near the wall on the left. There was a small desk on the right and there were two other doors on the opposite wall.

“The door on the left leads outside. Visitors are ask to come here after presenting themselves to the front entrance. On visiting days there is one officer inside and one outside next to this door. Visitors then need to show their identification card to the receptionist at the desk and then are asked to wait here before they are searched.” Gaara opened the second door and walked in. “We conclude a personal search in here and we used an ION scanner to detect if anyone has drugs on them. I won’t explain the mechanism, you can look it up online.”

Sasuke frowned but did not say a word as the rude man walked through the next door.  They entered a large grey corridor. In front of them was a large open space with several tables and chairs screwed to the floor and small boots with a large glass window separating both occupants.

Gaara turned back to him. “This is the visiting area. It is equipped with several cameras and there are listening device embedded inside each tables.”

Gaara waited to let him time to ask question but Sasuke did not have any for now. He just walked into the area and crouched near one of the table to look under. Sasuke did not have a habit of looking under furniture but this was probably the cleanest place he had ever seen. He could not have told that there was anything to record the conversation of inmates to their relatives under there.

He stood up and after a small walk around the place went back to Gaara. "Are conjugal visits permitted?" He asked as they started walking in the corridor.

"Yes. However, it is really strict. We have a small room with a bed inside and the whole visit is recorded with microphones. There is no live cameras in but we have infrared devices to supervise everything."

"There's not a lot of...privacy."

Gaara looked at him blatantly. “This is not a motel, it’s a maximum security prison.”

They were walking toward the next door when someone came around the corner at the end of the corridor. It was a tall blond man, rather handsome from afar, and he did not appeared to be a C.O. since he was wearing navy dress pants with an orange long sleeve shirt and carrying a messenger bag. He casually walked towards them and when he was close enough to see their faces, he waved enthusiastically.  

“Hey, Gaara! I almost thought that you were avoiding me.” The man said with a huge smile on his face. Sasuke had to change his thoughts, the man was definitely handsome, especially with that stupid smile on his face.

“If only it was possible.” Gaara muttered.

At Sasuke’s surprise, the man guffawed at the remark and hugged the correctional officer briefly before patting him twice on the shoulder. “Mate, next time you’re busy, tell your men the proper etiquette. I was with Deidara this morning and I had to kick your man out of the room. It could have been really bad if Dei had not been in a good mood.”

“Sorry about that. I had last minute instructions and didn’t have time to brief him.” Gaara said, indicating Sasuke with his thumb.

At that, the blond man finally looked at Sasuke. Looking as if he had not even noticed his presence before. Sasuke felt a bit exposed under the blue gaze scrutiny but kept his back straight and his head up, staring back. A short moment later, the man extended his hand to him, smiling again.

“You must be one of the newbies.” He started excitedly. “Don’t worry if Gaara is mean, it’s just a façade and he promised me he’d work on his people skills.” He looked at Gaara’s frowning face and winked at Sasuke.

Sasuke shook his hand and opened his mouth to answer. However, Gaara interrupted him before he could utter a single word. “No, Jiraiya asked me to give him a tour for some kind of research he’s doing. He won’t be working for me.”

A loud ringtone interrupted what the man was about to say. He pulled out his cell phone and seemed surprise to see what was on the screen.

“It seems like I have to go. Have fun, guys.” He looked pointedly at Gaara. “Be nice.”

“I’ll try.”

The man gave another smile to Sasuke and answer his phone as he was leaving. Sasuke looked at his back until he disappeared inside the door they had come from, talking about being surprised that the other person on the phone had called him so quickly.

Sasuke turned back to Gaara. “Who was that? I thought cell phones were not allowed inside the prison.”

Gaara smiled lightly. “Naruto Uzumaki. He’s a special case.

Sasuke frowned and wondered what type of business a man like Naruto had to do in a prison. The man was clearly here often; he had been walking around on his own, without any correctional officer. He was either well trust, or the guards around here were stupids. Sasuke could probably write one of his character based on Naruto. Smiling and waving stupidly on the outside, but a criminal mastermind meeting his pawns in jail and fooling everyone around him. Not that Naruto was suspicious, just that nobody could be that nice and exaggerating his case could be good for his story. 

* * *

Naruto had found it very difficult to not stare at the beautiful man standing next to Gaara during the entire conversation. He had tried to ignore him as much as possible to not be too obvious with his attraction. That’s why he had been thankful, although surprise, when his phone had ring and the name of Itachi Uchiha had been written on the screen. The man had never called him before thus his secretary, Konohamaru, had probably forwarded the call to him with the information. 

Naruto started walking toward the exit and answered his phone. “Hey! I’m surprised to hear from you so quickly.”

Itachi cleared his throat before answering. “ _I was going to leave a voicemail on your phone office but someone pick it up._ ”

Naruto shot a last look in direction of Gaara and the attractive man and exited the corridor, answering to Itachi. “ Yeah, Konohamaru was doing some cleaning in my files. Usually, there isn’t anyone at the office on the weekend.

“ _Lucky me then._ ”

Naruto chuckled and waved at the two guards in the gatehouse as he went out. “So what can I do for you?”

“ _I spoke with my brother about consulting…_ ” Itachi started. “ _And let’s say that it did not go well._ ”

Naruto hummed. “Did he appeared hurt or mad?”

“ _Definitely mad. Probably a little disbelieving? Like I said, we don’t usually talk about our feelings. I think I took him by surprise.”_

“That’s possible. At least you put the idea there, that will give him the chance to consider it on his own. Did you want to meet sometimes soon?” Naruto asked.

“ _Yes. If you have some free time, I wanted to talk a bit about family business. I’m putting this all on my brother but I think this could help me too._ ”

“Just give me a sec.” Naruto jogged the rest of the way to his car and opened the door. He took his agenda on the seat and opened it to this week, holding his phone between his shoulder and ear. “I only have a 2 hours spot on Monday morning or on Thursday afternoon. I’m out of town or on trial the rest of the week.”

“ _Monday morning is fine for me._ ”

“Perfect, I’ll see you at 10 in my office.” Naruto noted the appointment in the free space as he sat in his car and left the prison parking lot, shooting an appreciative look at the blue Mercedes parked nearby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to post the next chapter next Tuesday, see y'all!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mention of suicide(nothing graphic).

**_A week later_ **

Sasuke woke in the middle of the night with an heavy feeling in his chest. His throat felt raw, probably from screaming himself awake. It happened sometimes, less frequently now, but still. He had not had a nightmare like that in months

 He sat on his bed, breathing heavily and turned on the lamp on his bedside table. He knew his door was locked so he did not worry about it when he heard the sound of Itachi steps in the stairs, definitely coming to check on him.

 He stayed still for a while, Itachi probably had his ear against the door, waiting to see if any more distressed noises would come up. Sasuke breath in slowly, the presence of his brother was always a reassurance. Simply knowing that Itachi was on the other side of the door calmed him and when he finally heard Itachi moves away, he felt better.

 He stood up from his bed and went near the window. He could not really see anything - it was still dark outside and with his light on he mostly saw his reflexion on the glass. The darkness outside seemed to be calling to him like a magnet.

 He hesitated a little but he knew by now that he would not be able to go back to sleep after his night terror. He opened the small basement window and slithered his body outside.

 Once outside, he slowly crossed the yard, barefoot, toward the dock where his parents used to attached a small boat. He hated that boat when he was younger, but the sight of it had always been comforting, even after his parents had died. And though he had never set a foot on it when his parents were alive, he had been destroyed when he woke up one day, a month after their death, to find out that the boat was not there anymore.  That was the first time Sasuke had tried to kill himself.

 Sasuke sighed and sat on the dock, holding his left knee against his chest while his right foot graze the water. He looked at the water, his head full of bad memories, and hoped that things would never get this bad again.

 Sasuke silently sat there for hours, and when the sun finally rose he decided it was time to move. He stood up and walked back to the house, altering path at the last minute to go toward the terrace instead of through his window. He was pretty sure that Itachi was still asleep and that he would not realized that Sasuke had spend a huge part of the night outside.

 He quickly entered the 4 numbers code to unlock the door and entered the house, only realizing that his feet were freezing once he stepped on the soft carpet. He looked up the mezzanine to see if Itachi’s door is still close and went to his office to pick up his laptop once he saw that the coast was clear.

 The night and the memories had been hard on him and he knew that he had to escape them. He putted his laptop on the small table near the front door and looked at himself in the mirror. Deciding that he does not feel like replacing his sweatpants with something less comfortable he putted his leather jacket on, grabbed his keys and laptop, and left the house for somewhere where he could write without any weight on his shoulders.

 

* * *

 

For the first time since he had changed his schedule, Naruto woke up early on a Saturday. To congratulate himself, he decided to pick up a coffee at the Starbuck nearby instead of homemade coffee - his coffeemaker had broken two weeks ago and his instant tasted horrible.

 When he arrived on Johnson Street, he first noticed the blue mercedes parked in front. He could not tell if it was the same as last week because he did not remember the plates. He parked his car, an old red Mazda 3 sport, just behind it and tried to look casual as he walked towards the Mercedes.

 Bending to see the inside was not totally subtle, but he was not visible from the inside of the Starbuck and the owner might not even be in this building. He sighed hard when he realized that the tinted glass was too dark to see through unless he glued his face on it.

 “I’d love to see what you got inside of you.” Naruto said touching the hood with the tip of his index finger.

After some light petting, Naruto shook his head to regain his thoughts. He was supposed to get coffee then get to work, damn it! He jogged inside for his coffee and barely had to wait 2 minutes before ordering.

While he waited for his drink, he looked around the room and could not help but noticed a familiar face. The hot guy he had seen at the prison with Gaara last week was sitting alone in a boot with his laptop in front of him. Naruto was surprised to see him wearing a black t-shirt with grey sweatpants, it was completely different from his formal attire of last week.

The waitress gave him his coffee and looking at his watch, Naruto decided that he had time to say hi and asked how the visit went.

“Hey!” Naruto said, taking a seat in front of the man.

The other looked a little startled as he look up to him. “Hi?”

Even with the interrogation in his voice, Naruto was pretty sure he had been recognized. The guy seemed more curious about why Naruto would talk to him.

Naruto smiled. “We saw each other at the jail last week. Did you get the job?”

“The job?” Something seemed to click in the other man’s eyes. “Oh! I wasn’t there for a job. I’m writing a book and I needed a tour.”

Naruto passed his hand through his hair, a little embarrassed by his mistake, he remembered now that Gaara had said the man was there for research. He took a huge sip of his coffee to hide it. “Interesting. Can I ask what it’s about?”

 

* * *

 

Sasuke had almost jumped when the man from last week had sat in front of him. He had been completely immerse on his story and did not thought that anyone would have stop to talk to him. 

He hesitated a little when the other asked about his book but the other man seemed trustworthy to him and maybe he could help with some technical problem that he had. He opened the page where he had typed the layout and some notes about the prison and turned his computer so the other could read.

Sasuke pretty much stared at him as the man  concentrated on his laptop. He was truly handsome. The features of his face were almost perfect. A strong jaw, a light stubble, an aquiline nose, and beautiful sparkling blue eyes . His face also had a nice symmetry, which was definitely a plus in Sasuke’s opinion.

“This is interesting. Did you start writing the plot?”

Sasuke averted his gaze a little. “Yes, I have a couple of chapters for now. Could...” Sasuke paused but finally decided to ask. “Could you tell me what type of rifles they use at Millhaven? I asked but the guard refused to answer.”

The man laughed heartily and Sasuke could feel himself blush a little. It was a really nice laughter. “I’m not surprise, Gaara is a sourpuss. You noticed the Smith and Wesson at his hips, yes?” Sasuke nodded. “Well other than that, they usually have Colt Canada C7 Service Rifle. It has a 30 rounds capacity magazine.”

Sasuke took his computer back to write the informations down as the man kept talking. “I fired one a couple time and there’s something special about it. The recoil force is directed backwards instead of upwards because the barrel is in the same axis with the buttstock. This also makes the accuracy of the gun really good.”

Sasuke thanked him and the chatted a little more about weapons. After several minutes the blond man looked at his watch and his eyes grew wide.

He said. “I really need to get to work.”

He seemed hesitant but after a moment passed, he drank the rest of his coffee and stood up. “Give me a second.” The man walked towards the counter and Sasuke could hear him asking for a pen. He came back to the table smiling. He wrote something on his empty cup, right under the name that Sasuke had not noticed before then.

“Here. Give me a call if you need anything else!” The man putted his cup right in front of Sasuke, smiled, and left the coffee shop in a small jog.

Looking down at the cup with the phone number, Sasuke smiled.

 

* * *

 

The next day had Naruto anxiously sitting at one of the table in his dad’s restaurant. He was still wondering if giving his number to a man he had met only twice and telling him to call him if he needed “anything” was a good idea. Naruto had felt some good vibe from him, but for god sake, he did not even know the guy’s name. What if he gave him a booty call in the near future? Alright, the guy did not seem the type, and if he did Naruto was not sure that he would be able to say no. At least, not without a lot of hesitation.  

Naruto sighed heavily, looking out the window. It would be worst not to get a call at all.

“Why the long face, son?” 

Naruto jumped as his dad sat in front of him. He had been lost in thoughts and had not heard him approach at all.

“Nothing. Just a guy I met... I guess.” Naruto answered gloomily.

Minato raised his eyebrow. “You guess or you _know_?”

Naruto could not hide anything from his dad. Ever since his mom had died of an undetected pancreatic cancer 9 years ago, his dad had become the most observant person he knew. Minato had become a completely different man after that. When Naruto was younger, his dad was rarely at home. He was the mayor of the town and had a lot of responsibilities. It was a good week if Naruto, Minato, and his mother had one family diner per week.

Naruto was 18 years old when his mom had died. She had spend almost the entire year alone because he was in college and lived out of town and because his dad was too busy. They had both failed to notice anything wrong with her, and so had she. She had been admitted at the hospital with stomach pain and had died two days after that. His dad had been there with her, but Naruto was in his exam week at school and his mom had told him that it was only a slight food intoxication. Naruto should have known better.

The doctors had told Minato that it was often a subtle type of cancer but that it was usually treatable when detect early. What a way to rub salt in the wound. After that, his dad had resigned his job as the mayor and Naruto had transferred from Ottawa University to Queen’s University to be closer to his dad. It had been a really hard time.

After several month of mourning, his dad finally went back to working and with his savings, he opened a small restaurant near the university. Two years after that, when Naruto was about to turn 21 Minato had told him that he wanted to add his name to the list of foster homes available for kids in trouble in Kingston. Naruto had obviously agreed and three months later they had welcome a 13 years old boy in there house.

Naruto smiled, thinking of the sour look on Konohamaru’s face the first time he had seen him. In the end, Konohamaru had loved it with them. His dad even adopted in a couple months after the beginning of his stay and now Konohamaru was a young 19 years old man. He still lived with their dad and was working as Naruto’s secretary to make some money. Thinking about it, it had took them several years to get everything back together, but things were better now. They were great even.

Minato cleared his throat. “Naruto? You’re still there?” He asked a knowing smile on his face. He was use to seeing Naruto lost in thoughts.

Naruto shook his head. “Yes, sorry!”

“It’s fine, I had time to order lunch while you were lost in your world.”

“I was thinking about mom.”

Minato smiled softly and touched Naruto’s hand across the table. “I often do that too. Now, talk to me about your mysterious guy and don’t deflect again.”

Naruto’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t even know his name. I saw him only twice, last week at Millhaven and yesterday at Starbucks. He’s just so fucking gorgeous.” Minato looked at him pointedly so Naruto added quickly. “He also looks like a really nice guy and I got a good vibe from him.”

“Your intuition on people is usually really good. I don’t get what the problem is.”

“I told you. I don’t know his name. I gave him my phone number but there is like 75% chances he won’t call.”

“You said he was at the prison last week, don’t they keep record on who visits?” Minato asked.

Naruto coughed. “I tried that already, they didn’t write his name because it was not a common visitation. I was thinking about asking Gaara, he was with him that day.”

Minato laughed. “You should call him, Gaara I mean. Asked him the guy’s full name.” Minato winked at him and continued. “Maybe Kiba can run him up.”

Naruto laughed awkwardly. “Ugh… I’ll do that later.”

“Naruto,” Minato started using his authoritative voice. “I know you, you’re going to have cold feet the second you’re out of my restaurant. Call Gaara, now.”

Naruto ran his hand through his hair. “Alright, alright. No need to go all _dad_ on me.”

He took his phone from his back pocket and dialed Gaara’s number on memory. Three rings later, Gaara answered.

“Hey Gaara, it’s me.”

“ _Of course it’s you. I can read, you know? What do you want?”_

“You know the dude from last week? The one you had to walk through the prison.” Gaara hummed. “Do you recall his name?”

“ _I’m not sure, Naruto. Sasuke something. I can’t recall the last name. I wasn’t really listening_.”

“That’s rude, mate.” Naruto said.

“ _You’re one to talk. I perfectly well know that you’re asking for his name so you can ask Tweedledum to look him up in the system.”_

Naruto sputtered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“ _Keep lying to yourself. I’ll see you tonight.”_ Gaara said, then hung up.

Naruto dropped his phone on the table. “I can’t believe I did that. I feel like such a stalker now."

Minato laughed. “Don’t worry about it, son. Just make sure he never learn about your stalkerish tendencies. You remember that time when you were young and you followed that little girl you liked to her home everyday. She was so scared when she saw you lurking in the bushes behind her house -”

Naruto interrupted him. “Dad! You promised to never mention this again!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some precisions: in this story, Naruto is a bit older than Sasuke. Naruto is 27 and Sasuke is 24.
> 
> I wasn't going to mention Sasuke's suicide attempt, but the flow took me there and it happened. It's going to be a little bit more darker than I first thought, but nothing too major.
> 
> Hope you enjoy, see y'all!


	6. Chapter 6

It was 6 in the evening and Sasuke was sitting in his office, spinning his chair. He had always like doing that, especially when he did not know what to do. He would have like to ask Itachi some advice, but the latter had received a call early in the beginning of the afternoon and had left saying he had an important case to oversee. Sasuke knew his brother had no case in pending for now, thus the real reason of his departure was a mystery to him. Maybe Itachi had a girlfriend or something like that. 

The reason he wanted his brother’s advice was obviously connected to his book. Kakashi had called two hours ago asking to see a draft soon and discuss with him. Sasuke had frozen. He had not been able to tell Kakashi that he already had something written and even some chapters ready. He did not want Kakashi to be disappointed in him.

He needed someone else to approve before he showed it to Kakashi and he had not yet had time to show it to his brother. He knew his brother would not be biased and that he would tell him directly if it sucked. His brother was not known to go easy on him after all.

He just hoped that Itachi would not be home too late because Kakashi had scheduled them a meeting for Tuesday morning and Itachi surely would not have time tomorrow. Mondays were his busiest day after all.

_Hey Sasuke, I won’t be coming home tonight._

Sasuke sighed at Itachi’s text. There went his hopes. The girlfriend theory was slowly getting confirmed. Itachi not coming home was not something that happened often.

He did not really know who else he could ask. He had some friends, but none of them were big readers. Suigetsu probably had not read a book since high school and the only things that interested Juugo these days were animals.

He stared at the coffee cup on his desk. Maybe there was someone else he could ask. Itachi would probably have told him that calling a random guy giving away his phone number was not such a good idea. But he wasn’t there to judge.

Sasuke didn’t wanted to call the dude only to ask him to read a couple of pages and tell him what he thought about it. Sure the guy had said to call him if he needed “anything else” but it felt weird to just ask about this. Maybe he could think of some questions to ask at the same time. That was better. He could ask some questions about the prison and make him read his start and it would be fine.

Sasuke picked up his phone and dialed, hoping he would not look too desperate by calling the next day.

* * *

 Naruto was at his condo with several friends when his phone rang on Sunday.

Sunday had always been family day for Naruto so every weekend he saw his father for lunch. Konohamaru is usually there with them but he had a dentist appointment this morning and skipped lunch.

The rest of the day was for the guys. They would meet at someone's house and order some takeout or pizzas and they played video games the entire evening.

Today, for the first time in his life, Naruto regretted that all of his closest friend were there. During the entire conversation with Sasuke, they kept making faces and whispering snarky comments. Naruto was embarrassed and half-covering the receiver to be sure that Sasuke would not hear anything other than his answers.

After accepting to meet up the next day, he hung up the phone and shouted. “Guys! Can’t you shut up?”

Kiba turned off the TV so that all the attention was on Naruto. “Did I hear wrong or do you have a hot date?”

“Oh god.” Naruto whispered shaking his head.

“Yeah big bro, who’s that Sasuke?” Konohamaru asked.

“He’s a guy Naruto met at Millhaven.” Gaara answered without interest, throwing the xBox controller on the ottoman.

“He’s a criminal!?” Kiba asked almost panicking. “Not one of your patient I hope.”

“Naruto’s not stupid enough to date one of his patient, Kiba.” Shikamaru answered from where he was laying on the floor.

“So…” Konohamaru started. “Are you finally going to get some?”

“It’s just a professional meeting!” Naruto exclaimed.

“That’s what your mom said when she met your dad.” Kiba said.

Naruto guffawed then smiled. “That’s low, mate.”

“More seriously, if it’s just a ‘professional meeting’ why were you blushing?” Shikamaru asked.

Naruto had barely opened his mouth when Gaara answered. “ ‘Cause the guy is hot.” He looked at Naruto with a knowing look on his face and added. “So the reason why you could not wait 3 hours to ask me his name in person is because you wanted to stalk him before he called you, right? Because you saw him outside of Millhaven too.”

Naruto sighed. It would be easier if he just answered and then they could keep playing zombie mode. “Yes. I saw him at Starbuck yesterday and we talk about the book he’s writing. I said I could help if he had questions and gave him my number.”  That’s not exactly what he had said, but he certainly was not going to admit it to his friends.

Kiba almost jumped in his seat. “He’s a writer?! I could run him in the system, maybe he is some kind of drug dealer. Not everyone can get around only writing books, and I’ve never heard of him. He’s probably not that popular.

“How could you have heard of him, I didn’t even know you could read Kiba.” Shikamaru said. “And if he wanted informations, why didn’t you give Gaara’s number?”

Naruto snickered. “Because Gaara is a bitch to talk to.” He looked at Gaara. “No offense, mate.”

“None taken, I’m proud of it.”

“Alright. Now that we’ve talk about it can we get back to the game? There’s nothing more to say about this meeting.” Naruto said, receiving a pout from Konohamaru.

“If it’s so professional, I guess you’re not gonna call Sakura to ask her what to wear.” Kiba said with a knowing look.

Naruto shook his head and turned the TV back on. He was definitely going to call Sakura.

* * *

His friends had left around midnight the night before and since it was probably a little too late to call Sakura, Naruto had decided to do it first thing in the morning.

He jumped on his phone right when his alarm rang, at 7 am sharp, and quickly dialed his friend’s number.  

“It’s an emergency!” Naruto screamed in the phone as Sakura greeted him.

“ _What happened? Is someone hurt?_ ” Sakura asked with her worried doctor voice. She knew that the guys met every Sunday and it had turned bloody a couple time before. She couldn’t imagine a reason other than an accident for Naruto to call her this early.

Naruto blushed as Sakura altered between asking question about who was hurt and chastising him about not being mature enough.

“Woah!” Naruto interrupted her. “Not that type of emergency. I have a date!”

“ _Wow, Naruto! This is big. Your first date since university. I’m so proud of you._ ”

Naruto grimaced. Why did she have to rub salt in the wound? It was true that he had not dated since he was 22. He had wanted to focus on his studies and then on his career and when he had finally felt ready to date again, there was never any opportunities.  He was too busy to date anyone. It was still the case today but with time and compromises he knew he could have a relationship.

Not that this was a real date anyway.

“ _Why didn’t you call me earlier? I could have come by and make you try some outfits.”_ Sakura continued.

“He called me yesterday and we are meeting today. I need you to tell me what to wear. Nothing too formal, this is technically not a romantic date but I’m interested and I want to feel noticeable. But not too much.”

Sakura chuckled on the other side. “ _I know perfectly what you’ll wear. Remember that blue cobalt shirt I bought you at christmas last year? You better still have it. And don’t put it on right away if you haven’t had breakfast yet. You’re a messy eater…”_

Naruto putted his phone on speaker and started ransacking his walk-in closet as Sakura started to debate with herself about whether brown shoes would look good with his blue shirt.

* * *

“I don’t think I can die. Sasuke just… He needs me.” Itachi said, his voice shaking. 

This was Itachi’s third visit in Naruto’s office and Naruto felt like this one was going to be the hardest.

Last week Itachi had came into his office with a wonderful poker face and had thrown pretty much all his life at him. Or rather their life since every time Itachi mention his relation to something he had to talk about his brother’s relation to the same thing.

He had talked about how both their relation with their dad had been harsh, but how much harder it was for his brother because he had been growing in his shadow. Naruto had the impression that this sentence had came from Itachi’s brother himself. They probably had had an argument sometime and words had been thrown at each other like weapons.

He had also talked a little bit more about his parents death. A drunk driver on a rainy night had ran over them while they were going back to their car from the theater. Itachi had been at a college party and thus was not there with his brother to answer the door when the policemen had come to announce the accident.

The guilt Itachi felt was not visible on his face but Naruto could see it still. Just by the word Itachi picked to express himself it became obvious that even seven years after an accident that Itachi had no control over, he still felt guilty for not being there at the right time for his brother.

After the accident had come the story of how Itachi had came to be the legal guardian of his brother. How hard it had been for the youngest to get through their parents death and how hard it still was.

“I can do this to him.” Itachi added.

“You’re not _doing_ anything to him. It’s just happening to you. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Itachi looked coy. That was a weird expression on him. “Well, about that.” He paused for a minute. “I got a call yesterday from the hospital. They had me passed some new tests to see if I would be a good candidate for a new treatment.”

Naruto raised a brow, interested. “And?”

“They think it could work.” Naruto forced himself to not show any delight. Itachi’s tone was a little dismal. This did not seem to entirely be a good news.

“It’s still in trial though and the survival rate is really low.”

“How low?”

“15 to 20 percents. This is only based on their calculations. They are starting the trials next week and only three persons have accepted to do it yet.”

“But you haven’t.” This was not a question, Naruto knew that Itachi was not ready to take such decision yet.

“No. I want to wait a bit more. They say I have approximately 3 months to decide if I want to do the trial or not, then it would be too late. My tumor will have grow to much to be reduce then operate by this treatment.” Itachi had spent yesterday’s evening and the entire night thinking about what decision to make. He had even rented a hotel room because he had not wanted Sasuke to see him lost like this.

“Can you tell me how this treatment works?” Naruto asked.

“The doctor told me that they will inject a virus inside the tumor to try and make it shrink. They should be able to operate afterward. I want to wait and see if it worked on the patients testing it this week. ”

“But what if it works on you even if it did not on the others? The way I see this if you try the treatment the best case scenario is 20% of chances to live. If you don’t it’s 100% death.”

“Yes, but if I do it my two years left of life could drop to 0.”

“Listen Itachi, I can’t tell you what to do, but I definitely can give you some advice. You’ve known for a month about your cancer, and I think it’s time for you to tell your brother. I know you think he is still weakened by your parents death and you don’t want to hurt him even more, but this is something you should discuss with people who loves you and I have no doubts that your brother does. You have a really big choice to make and I think it is important that he be part of it to. Since you started coming here, we’ve talk a lot about your brother. Itachi, this is not about your brother anymore, it’s about you. Yes, your brother will need a lot of support if you dies, but you need support right now. Try to think about it.”

Itachi looked a little startled after Naruto’s rant but didn’t say a word.

Naruto sighed and looked at his watch. “I’m afraid we are done for today, I’ll see you next Monday.”

Itachi stood to shook Naruto’s hand and went to the door. However, just before closing it behind him he turned toward Naruto. “Thank you.” He said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The treatment Itachi refers to is the Shepherd Method from Grey's Anatomy. I'm currently watching this show and I thought a reference would be nice!
> 
> I always forget to tell you guys, but I'll should be posting every fortnight, on Tuesdays. Next chapter will be Sasuke and Naruto's date. See y'all!


	7. Chapter 7

 

Their lunch date was at 12:30 and it was already 12h20 when Naruto left his office after having almost kicked Itachi out, and after changing his shirt for the one Sakura had chosen. He was a little bit nervous about this even if he knew that Sasuke only wanted to ask him questions for his story. 

He had told Sakura the day before that this was not a romantic date and that he needed something not too formal to wear for it, but she had went overboard, as usual, and had chose his nicest blue shirt with grey dress pants. He also had a bowtie matching the pants. At least she had not insist on the jacket, this would have been too much.

When he arrived in front of the small restaurant, he saw that the blue Mercedes was already in front. He looked at his watch, only 5 minutes late. Not too bad. He could have done worst. 

He spotted Sasuke right away when he entered the restaurant. He was sitting in the back and was writing inside a notebook. Naruto felt a little better when he noticed that Sasuke was wearing black dress pants with a grey shirt. He could also see the black jacket on the back of his chair. He looked really good in this. 

He smiled to the hostess and walked to the table where Sasuke sat. He cleared his throat before sitting to not startle him. “Hey! Have you been here for long?”

Sasuke quickly scribbled something in the notebook and putted it away. “Hi. No, maybe ten minutes or so.”

There was the awkwardness of small talks in the beginning. They talked about the weather, the traffic, etc. They started talking about Millhaven only after the waitress took their order and brought them water. 

“Alright, so I’m not really sure about the atmosphere where the inmates are. I saw a lot of things last week but we obviously did not go inside the cell blocks and my touring guide was reluctant to talk about that. I also heard that there was a riot a week before my visit, can you tell me something about that?”

“I have not been inside the cell blocks often myself, but as far as I know it’s, more often than not, pretty calm. Especially during the week because they don’t want their visiting privileges revoke.” Naruto had only been in the cell blocks 3 times before. Only because one of his patient was reluctant to leave his cell and once because Sasori had been in distress, that was just before the riot of two weeks ago and the main cause for it. 

Naruto could answer Sasuke as long as he did not disclosed any names. “As for the riot, it happened because one of the prisoner was getting transferred. He had a lot of influence inside and when his departure was announced a lot of the guys from his blocks went mad. Especially the ones he was protecting against other high heads in the jail. They succeed in taking one of the guard in hostage, while they were in the court, and try to negotiate his stay. In the end, the prisoner they were transferring is the one that ended it all. It only last four hours and the guard was in one piece. Only a couple of bruises on his ribs.” 

Naruto had been called in emergency that day. The riot would probably have been shorter if he had been able to free himself from the court earlier than that. Gaara had brought him to Sasori and Deidara’s cell really fast and after some talking with him, Sasori had went outside and ordered calmly the other inmates to release the guard and go back to their cells in silence. That had been impressive and kind of hot, but let's not go there.

Sasuke took a few notes of what could be useful to his story and handed the notebook to Naruto. “Would you mind reading what I’ve lay down for now? I almost have 4 chapters done and I want to know if the atmosphere seems right to you.”

Naruto smiled. “Sure I’d love too.”

Naruto carefully read what was scripted in a neat writing on the white pages. He had a good feeling about the beginning but there was something a little off. 

“There’s something I’m a little worried about.” Naruto said hesitantly.

“Alright, feel free to be honest.”

“I don’t think you should do a prison break. Believe me, lots of interesting things happen inside, you don’t need a break out to make it good. Or if you do, don’t make the escape the central plot, there’s already too much of that, maybe just a side quest.“ Naruto blushed when he noticed that Sasuke was staring at him. “Ugh… I don’t want this to look like I’m telling you what to do…” Naruto tittered, his right hand passing through his hair.

The silence lasted for awhile, but finally Sasuke answered. “It’s fine, it’s like we’re brainstorming.” Naruto still looked embarrass so Sasuke decided to try for a joke. 

“As long as you don’t sue me for theft of intellectual property.” He said with a small smirk.

Because of his nervousness, it took some time to Naruto to realize that Sasuke was kidding. He cracked a smile, probably a bit too forced, but the atmosphere around them already felt better.

They were barely halfway through the main course and the subject of Sasuke’s new book already seemed exploit to its full potential. Naruto decided that it was time to wander in other subjects. He took a sip of water and dove right in.

“Are you a writer full-time or do you have another job?” Naruto asked.

Sasuke looked surprise at the interrogation. Naruto had been right, this was definitely not a real date in the eye of the other, just a professional meeting. It was disappointing but Naruto was not known to retreat. If his tentative to turn this into a real date turned out to be a big flop, he would just act as if nothing had happen. Ignore the problem until it goes away. Definitely not something he would tell his patients, though.

Sasuke took a bite of his salad - that was a really sad meal in comparison to Naruto’s huge steak,- and answered. “I am technically a doctor, but I don’t practice.”

Naruto almost jumped on the information. “Me too! Why don’t you practice?” He was excited to have found a common point between them and it probably showed on his face.

Sasuke raised one eyebrow. He had not pegged Naruto as a doctor, but this definitely explain why the other was familiar with the jail. He probably had patients there. “I’ve completed my Phd only a couple months ago and the internship and residency do not interest me at all. Maybe I’ll change my mind someday. Sooner than I wish if my publisher decides that my style of writing has not improve.” 

“I’m sure he will, this is great!” Naruto said excitedly pointing at Sasuke’s notebook.

Sasuke snickered. “You’ve barely read the first chapters I wrote and the layout. You can’t say if this is a change from my other books, you haven’t read them.”

“Maybe I did, how would you know?”

“You don’t appear to be in my target audience.”

Naruto laughed. “I read a lot of dark stuff.” 

Sasuke smirk turned into a teasing smile. “Oh yeah, I’m sure you do. Dramatic romance seems to be your type.”

Naruto putted his right hand on his chest and acted scandalize. “The last volume of Twilight was pretty dark! I’m sure you can’t do better than a creepy childbirth.”

Sasuke laughed at that. It only lasted a minute but Naruto almost beamed hearing it. 

Sasuke took his notebook previously discarded on the corner of the table, and opened it on his Mr X. story. He handed it to Naruto with a more serious look on his face. 

Naruto read the short story carefully. He had not been lying when he had said that he read dark stories. He did not necessarily liked them but sometimes it helped him in thinking like some of his own patients. He felt a little bit bad about the fact that in reading this story he was not only analyzing it, he was also analyzing its writer. He was pretty sure he recognized the style and it made him think that Sasuke had a lot more baggage than he had first thought.

After a while, Naruto handed the notebook to a worried looking Sasuke. The worry was subtle but it was there. Naruto smiled, trying to be reassuring without being too obvious. “It’s good.” And it was, but still a little too heavy for him to really enjoy it. “I definitely read your books before.”

Sasuke looked impress, then challenging. “You can tell just by that? What’s my pen name?”

Naruto grabbed his fork to eat the last piece of his steak, thinking of how many chances he had to be wrong on his guess. He felt pretty certain of it and if it was wrong Sasuke would probably not welcome it with indignation. Naruto swallowed then answered. “I think you’re Akashi Hebi.”

If Sasuke was the type, his mouth would probably have opened out of surprise. 

“Did I guess right?” Naruto asked smiling.

Sasuke did not answered right away as he was still a little nonplused and distracted by the waitress that had come to pick up their empty plates. 

He cleared his throat before answering. “You definitely did. How?”

Naruto tried to deviate the question. He had not tell Sasuke that he was a psychologist, he never did on the first date, and unveiling it right now did not seem like a good idea. “I aced my literature classes in college. And to say the truth, I probably read like 12 dark books and 4 of them were of you so -” 

Naruto was interrupted by their waitress. She was standing in front of the table, looking timid. “I’m really sorry but we have several people waiting and since you two are done would you mind giving your places?” 

They both looked up in surprise but nodded. Five minutes later, after Sasuke had paid their bills “to thank him for answering his question,” they were both standing awkwardly outside on the sidewalk. Sasuke had both his hands in his dress pants pockets and Naruto was unconsciously kicking some gravel with his left foot.

“So…” Naruto started. “I can’t believe we’ve just been kicked out.”

Sasuke hummed. “Yes, well I needed to leave anyway.” He turned his upper body to look at his car parked right behind him, only three meters away.

Naruto was panicking. He wanted to ask for a real date but was not sure if it would be inappropriate of him to do so. He had not been on a date since his first year of college, thus he was a little rusty. However, he was pretty sure that the good vibe had been there pretty much during the entire conversation, but maybe it was just on his side. 

Sasuke definitely noticed that Naruto was frozen and did not know what to do. He was pretty much in the same situation himself but he was definitely better at hiding it. He had had a really good time with Naruto and even if his intentions had completely been professional at first, he now had the impression that he could invest himself a little more in this. Naruto seemed to be the good type of guy to dive in a relationship with. Or at least try to, Sasuke knew he had some issues to solve if he wanted to be in a real relationship.

He took a deep breath and slowly started backing away toward his car. Once his door was open and he stood a little behind it, he finally had the courage to talk. 

“Make sure you’re the one to call me next, Naruto.”

* * *

“Did you kiss him?” Sakura asked with enthusiasm .

Naruto had to stop his rant about how wonderful his date had been and how great Sasuke was to answer. “What? No! We’re definitely not there yet. There was just a hint that he might be interested.”

“Come on! Of course he’s interested, you’re freaking hot!” Kiba said while taking his fifth shot. 

Every time one of them had a date, they would meet at a bar or a restaurant to explain everything in details. It had been a really long time since Naruto had been the one talking about his experience. It felt refreshing.

“Being hot is not the only important thing!” Sakura said slapping Kiba lightly on the arm. “Does he have money?” 

It was silent for a couple of second before Sakura rolled her eyes. “That was a joke. Come on, you guys!”

Kiba ignored Sakura and ordered another drink. “So when are you gonna call him?”

Naruto took a small sip of his beer, not sure what to answer. “I don’t know… Maybe I should wait a couple of days. I don’t want to appear clingy -”

“Don’t!” Sakura interrupted him. “This thing about waiting before giving news is full of crap. You need to call him fast so he doesn’t have time to change his mind and his joy about the previous date is still there.”

Kiba choked on his shot and laughed. “Are you saying that if he thinks about it, he’ll change his mind about dating this guy?” He pointed Naruto with his empty glass.

Sakura sighed. “You know that’s not what I meant. It applies for everyone.”

“Alright, I’ll call him tomorrow in the evening.” Naruto said. He corrected himself when he saw Sakura staring at him with a hard look. “Or in the morning. Morning sounds good to me.”

“Perfect. I already know what you’re going to wear on your next date. I saw this really nice button down shirt at Rideau Centre the last time I went to Ottawa and it would look amazing on you.”

“I’m not sure I have time for a 4 hours roadtrip Sakura. My only day off is Sunday and -”

Kiba interrupted him, almost falling down the stool in his excitation. “It’s gaming day!!!”

“And family day. I know.” Sakura said. “That’s why I bought it and kept it in my closet for a month.”

“You never buy me things.” Kiba pouted, about to call the bartender for another round before being stopped by Naruto.

“I think you’ve had enough, mate. You’re on duty tomorrow.” Naruto said. 

“I buy new toys for Akamaru every week or so!” Sakura said indignantly.

“You don’t buy things for me!” Kiba whines.

Naruto shook his head, Kiba was really drunk. He always got a little jealous of Naruto and Sakura’s relation in those moments. Even if there was nothing to be jealous about.

“You don’t like fashion! I’m not going to buy you loads of clothes. I thought giving things to your dog made you happy.”

“It does. I just feel like you like Akamaru more than me.”

“I don’t even like dogs!” Sakura said enraged.

Naruto sighed. It was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is! Hope you liked it. 
> 
> There is a high risk that Sasuke will learn about Itachi's disease in the next chapter so the mood will be a little down for a time. See y'all!


	8. Chapter 8

 

It was two days after his last meeting with Naruto and Itachi had finally come to a decision. Today he was going to confess to his brother. He had call in sick at the office and he would tell the truth to Sasuke when he woke up.

Itachi had been sitting in their kitchen since 4 in the morning playing all scenarios in his head on how Sasuke would react, but he felt like none of them seemed accurate. Sasuke would definitely not cry. Well not in front of him. He could scream at him maybe? Ot throw something at him? Maybe he’d just leave the room and come back later to talk about it.

Itachi shook his head and stood from his chair. He needed to distance himself from the situation. The more he dreaded this, the harder it would be when the moment really came.

He decided to do some things he had not done in a while. He took out some milk, flour, and eggs and started to make some pancake. At least this would keep him concentrate on something else, and maybe the smell would convince Sasuke to get out of bed. It was already 10 am and still no sign of him.

* * *

 Sasuke had spent the entire night sitting on the dock outside the house. His date with Naruto - he was definitely calling this a date now - had bring him a lot of energy and he could not sleep at all. It had been the same yesterday, but tonight instead of staying in his bed waiting for sleep, he had decided to go outside and to bring more content to his novel.

He had been working on Naruto's idea of just making the break out a side quest and it was coming out wonderfully. He had laid another draft during the course of the night and written two other chapters. The ones he had already written still fitted with the story since they were mostly introducing his character and the place of the intrigue thus he would be able to show that to Kakashi at their meeting today.

The meeting was set for 2 in the afternoon and Sasuke was pretty confident that it would go smoothly. This idea was new, not predictable, and since he had been in a really good mood all night, not that dark. He was feeling a lightness in his chest, it had been a long time since he had felt this way about something he was writing. The last time was probably while writing his third book four years ago, when the novelty of being a writer was still thrilling to him.

He looked at the sun and decided that it was probably time for him to head back inside. It was getting pretty high in the sky after all and he did not want to be late for his meeting.

As he closed his laptop, his cellphone vibrated on the dock. Maybe he was already late and Kakashi was calling him to sermon him. He was surprised, pleasantly surprised, to see that the ID number was not Kakashi’s but rather Naruto. He was calling a lot sooner than what Sasuke would have guess.

“Hello?”

“ _Uhmmm.. Hi! It’s Naruto.”_

“Hi. I’m surprised to hear of you so soon.”

Naruto laughed awkwardly on the other side of the phone. “ _Is it a bad timing? I was told that waiting too long was not a good idea.”_

Sasuke almost laughed at the nervousness in Naruto’s voice.  “I thought you would have called yesterday.”

“ _Should I have? Damn, I should have listen to Sakura but I was so busy… But I did thought about calling you, you know?”_

Sasuke smiled. “Naruto, your timing is just fine, relax.”

“ _I’m perfectly relax.”_

“Of course you are. So why are you calling me?”

_“I wanted to ask you on a date?”_

“Oh. Did you now?”

This was fun. Sasuke had been really nervous when he had told Naruto to call him but now that he was on the phone with him, he could see that Naruto’s nervousness overpowered his own and it kind of relaxed him.

“ _Yup! I definitely did.”_ Naruto was vigorously shaking his head behind his phone.

Sasuke decided to take the reins of the conversation instead of making more fun of him. “Alright, when are you free? Dinner, lunch, or breakfast?”

 _“I was thinking about something a little less conventional.”_ Seeing Sasuke being open about the idea of a date had made Naruto more confident.

Sasuke rolled his eyes wondering what kind of idea the other had in mind. “I’m almost scared.”

“ _Don’t be! It’s going to be great. Are you free Saturday night?”_

Sasuke hummed softly in approval. “ _Sweet! Text me your address and I’ll pick you up at 6. And don’t eat!”_

Sasuke was definitely smiling as he said goodbye to Naruto and started to type his address. When he looked at the time after sending it, he thought that he should definitely get ready if he did not wanted to be late to his meeting. 

* * *

 

When Sasuke entered the house around 11 am, he was surprised to see that Itachi was still home. Even more surprising was the fact that he was making pancakes, lots of them. There was already three plates with easily ten pancakes on each.

“Why are you making pancakes?” Sasuke asked from just behind Itachi’s shoulder. He could not help but smirk when Itachi nearly jumped upon hearing him.

Itachi had been waiting for Sasuke, but he was definitely not ready for him to appear out of nowhere right behind him. That was why he was going to put the fault on his surprise. It had just slipped out.

“I have cancer.”

Sasuke did not move for a fraction of second and then he started laughing hysterically. He laughed for what seemed to be a long time but was probably only a couple of seconds.

“Wow.” He said out of breath before walking out of the kitchen towards the front door, his laptop still under his arm.

Itachi slapped himself on the forehead as he heard the door slammed. That was not how it was suppose to happen. He threw the frying pan on the ground and cursed.

“Fuck!”

* * *

 Naruto was feeling great and it was really hard to hide it from Konohamaru when he came in his office to give him some files.

“You’re glowing.” Konohamaru said.

Let’s change hard for impossible.

“I’m not!” Naruto replied still smiling.

“Did you have sex?” Naruto frowned at Konohamaru’s question, making him laugh.

“Good it worked. Now keep that smile off your face ‘cause your patient is here and she’s already crying.” Konohamaru said more seriously.

“Tenten?”

Konohamaru nodded before leaving the office.

Naruto didn’t know why he had asked. Tenten was the only patient he saw on Tuesday. He usually spent all his Tuesday reviewing his cases, analyzing his current ones or studying the new ones. However, Tenten was only free to visit him on Tuesday after school, thus he made exceptions for her.

Tenten was an important witness in a trial against an Italian mob boss. The man had abducted her when she was 5 and had raised her as his own daughter, with success, until the day when she saw him kill someone in cold blood. She had been 14 and had run away to the nearest police station.

That was three years ago and she was still under witness protection as the detectives on the case tried to gather more proof to incriminate her adoptive father. She was living in Kingston under a fake name and could not leave the house where she was assigned unless it was to go to school, or once a week, to come see him.

Naruto was about to stand up and go ask Tenten to come in when a someone knocked on his office and entered it. It was Asuma. He was the detective who had first took Tenten’s deposition at the station. They had sent him and his partner, Kurenai, as bodyguard for Tenten. They were also her parents in the eyes of the school she attended.

Naruto stood up to shake his hand and asked him what was wrong.

“Sorry, I know we’re early but her school called us saying that she would not stop crying and asking to talk to a certain Naruto so we picked her up early to bring her here.”

“Do you think something important happened?”

“Man, I have no idea! I don’t speak teenage girl. Even Kurenai doesn’t know what to do and she used to be one.”

Naruto chuckled. “Alright, I can manage teenager jargon.”

They both got out of the room to find Tenten clinging to Kurenai while in tears. Tenten almost jumped on Naruto when she saw him arriving. Kurenai looked relieved to pass the crying girl over to him.

Tenten hugged Naruto as hard as she could and he replied to her embrace. Konohamaru was looking a little awkward at his desk and seeing that they did not seemed to be moving, he picked up his laptop and went inside Naruto’s office, closing the door behind him.

Tenten watched him leave, seaming to get calm enough to try and speak.

“I just…” Tenten sniffed and started sobbing again. “I thought I was finally happy! That I finally had my shit together. But all the shitty things have to happen to me!”

“Did something bad happened at school?” Naruto asked as Tenten tried to wipe her tears on his shirt.

“Yes. Something so horrible that I feel like dying.”

“What was it?” Kurenai asked softly.

“He… He…” Another wave of tears seemed to hit her.

“Take all the time you need Tenten, it’s alright to cry.” Naruto said.

“He left me!” Tenten almost screamed in Naruto’s chest.

“Wait, what?” Kurenai asked.

“Neji broke up with me.”

“The fucker!” Asuma mumbled.

Naruto mentally sighed in relief. It was only teenage drama, nothing really big. She had not witnessed another murder, or been bullied. Nothing too traumatizing.

“He sais his family would not allow him to see someone like me and that I was not worth fighting for since I wouldn’t even go on a date with him. It’s not my fault if there is a mass murderer after me! I want to go out with him, I just can’t go out at all.”

“Did you tell him that it was because your parents were strict about letting you go out?” Naruto asked.

“Yes!” Tenten exclaimed. “But he just said that no parent would be so strict as to never let their kid out.”

“Coming from a guy whose parents try to control his personal life…” Asuma said.

“I know! He’s such an ass!” Now she looked really mad. Well better anger then tears, Naruto thought.

Tenten finally let go and sat down on the floor. Naruto did the same as Asuma and Kurenai sat in the chairs nearby. She looked at him, almost pleadingly.

“I just want a normal life Naruto. I want all this shit to end, I don’t wanna wake at 24 without having lived like a normal person. I couldn’t have a real childhood, why can’t I at least have this? I wanna go out with friends, have a boyfriend, miss curfew, and have real parents. Parents who love me and want what’s best for me! Not a parent who train me to be a great swordswoman and then murder people in front of me!”

“You will have that!” Asuma exclaimed from where he was sitting.

If looks could kill, the one Naruto gave to Asuma would probably had him dropped dead. You don’t go and lie to traumatized kid. Even after her little fit, Tenten was still a mature young woman and lying to her was not a good idea. It could make her resent him for doing the same thing her supposed dad had done.

Tenten was about to be 18 and once the trial was over, the government was probably going to give her some financial aid to start but after that she would be on her own.

“Look Tenten, you did not have it easy in your childhood, and even today you’re living the hard way, but except for the fact that you have two nice officers following you everywhere. This is as real as it gets.” Naruto looked over at Asuma and Kurenai. “Maybe you guys could make some arrangement for her to get out sometimes on weekend, I’m pretty sure it would help her a lot. Just having friends over at your place or sending her to a friend’s house could be really good. It does not have to be a really public place. I think Tenten is smart and careful enough not to endangered herself.” He winked at her and she smiled.

Asuma sighed and whatever it is he was about to say was cut out by Konohamaru coming loudly back in the room saying that Itachi had an emergency.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being late guys! My boss was on vacation last week, and this week she took a sick leave because of some heart problems so today was my first day off in 13 days. I did not have any chapter ready so I wrote all day long! I hope you enjoyed it. We will see a bit more of Sasuke's feeling in the next chapter, and it's bad.
> 
> There should be a new chapter in two weeks(hopefully). See y'all!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty! This is getting a little bit darker than what I had planned at first. I added a new tag if you guys haven't notice and this tag applies on this chapter.
> 
> Trigger Warning: Suicide Attempt

Sasuke drove all the way to Ottawa in his sweatpants and his sleep shirt, feeling numb. The trip passed in a heartbeat and Sasuke barely noticed the weird looks he got once inside his publisher’s office. People were used to see him in a suit and his loose sweatpants were definitely far from being classy.

As he approached Kakashi’s office, he looked at his watch. It was exactly 2 PM. He opened the door as soon as he got to it, not acknowledging Kakashi’s secretary. 

As usual, Kakashi was waiting for him. Both feet on his desk, he was laying back on his desk chair with his hands crossed behind his head. 

“Ah Sasuke, so sweet of you to reward me with your presence!” Kakashi said as a welcome.

Sasuke didn’t deign to answer. He just opened his laptop, typed in the password, and gave it to Kakashi, still opened on his draft and first chapters. He placed himself near the window in Kakashi’s office and waited, looking over the town.

Kakashi frowned looking at Sasuke’s back. This was a weird comportment, even for him. Sure, Kakashi always thought that Sasuke was the unusual type but he had never seen him like this. The other man appeared to be completely out of it. If Kakashi had not know Sasuke better he might have thought that he was ridiculously high.

He sighed silently and started reading Sasuke’s work. He’d try to talk to him when he was done.

It took Kakashi a little bit over an hour to read over everything and to leave some notes in the margins. He then took a USB key out of his drawer and transfer the work on it.

“This is a good start.” Kakashi said, closing the laptop and standing up to give it to Sasuke. 

Sasuke had still not move from his spot by the window and he only looked back when Kakashi slightly touched his shoulder. 

“I left some notes, as usual but all in all this is really good. I feel confident about this one.” Kakashi said, handing the laptop back to Sasuke.

Sasuke took the laptop and Kakashi was not sure of how to approach him with his next question. They never spoke of personal things when they saw each other and Kakashi was pretty sure that Sasuke would not want to talk about his feeling with him.

“I need to ask you a serious question.” Kakashi asked, putting his hands in his pocket. The only acknowledgement he got from Sasuke was a frown.

“Are you okay?”

Sasuke just rolled his eyes and left the office as silently as he had come in, leaving Kakashi alone, and a little worried. “ _ At least I tried,” Kakashi thought to himself. _ He would give Itachi a call later to feel better about it. 

Sasuke’s mind had been blank since he’d left his house at noon, but as he hitted the highway on his way back home, his mind swarmed with thoughts.

Itachi had cancer. His  _ brother _ had cancer. The only family he had left was going to die. He had not stayed around to hear more about it, but he was pretty sure it was the case. If Itachi’s cancer wouldn’t have been lethal, he probably would have dealt with it in private and only told Sasuke about it once he was in remission. Sasuke was sure of this because he would have done the same.

He didn’t know what he would do without his brother. They weren’t the closest, mostly because Sasuke had never allowed himself to be really close to his brother after their parents death, but there was all those little things that would make it impossible for Sasuke to be happy without Itachi. Hell, he wasn’t even happy when Itachi was around, how worse could it gets? A lot, probably.

Sasuke hadn’t been happy since he was 17. His parents had died and he had not been able to cope with it. But Itachi had been. He had stayed strong, even in the face of death. Even in the face of his hating and suffering little brother. 

Sasuke had not hated Itachi in particular, he pretty much hated everything at this point in his life. He hated life itself mostly, and he had reacted like a petty child. He had ignored Itachi, had accused him of thing that weren’t his fault, and had threw some of the worst insults at him.

Itachi had reacted to all of that with little smiles and nice gestures, never giving up on Sasuke. Never giving up on trying to make him feel better even if he was not feeling that well himself.

It had been hard for both of them for a long time but thing had gotten better. Not good, but better. Well until now. Now it had gotten way worse. Worse than when their parents had died. 

What was Sasuke supposed to do now? Wait and just watch Itachi died? Sasuke didn’t thought he would be able to watch as his only  _ person  _ left deteriorated slowly and faded away. 

If Sasuke had to talk about it later, he would probably referred to this as an impulse but to be honest this was a calculated act. He violently jerked the steering wheel, sending the car straight towards the trees.

If someone was going to watch the other die, it would not be him.  _ “Rather it be Itachi,” Sasuke thought as he lost consciousness. _

* * *

Itachi was lying in his bed when he got the call. At first he just could not believe his ears but then it hit him. He hung up his phone and quickly ran to his car.

Sasuke had been in a car accident. 

The memories of when he last had this type of conversation were heavy but he needed to push them back for now and go see if Sasuke was okay. The nurse calling him had barely had the time to tell him where his brother was. He acted too impulsively to know if he was alright. Not a good move.

He was lucky not to meet any cops on the way there because the usual 15 minutes drive to Kingston General Hospital only took him 5 minutes. He had ran several red lights and his stops had been of the nonexistent kind.

Once he’s park near the hospital, he took a deep breath. He was not going to go in there in a panic. It would be useless and would probably freaked out the other patient. Also the nurses would hate him.

Once inside, he walked quickly to the reception desk. The lady behind the desk smiled to him as she saw him approached. She was often here when he came to consult his doctor and they always greeted each other.

“Hi, Mr Uchiha! How may I help you today?” She asked.

“I got a call, my brother was in a car accident. Can I have the room number?”

Her face saddened. “Oh, of course. Name?”

“Sasuke Uchiha.”

She quickly looked in her computer and frowned. “It says here that no visitors are allowed. I’ll page Dr. Senju, she’s in charge of his case.”

Itachi repeatedly drummed his fingers on the desk while he waited. The fact that he could not see him was probably not a good sign. He could be in surgery, but if that was the case the doctor in charge would definitely not have time to come converse with him about that.

A few minutes later, a middle aged woman wearing a white coat came walking towards them. 

“Hi, I’m Dr. Tsunade Senju. You must be Sasuke Uchiha’s brother.” She quickly introduced herself, extending her hand to him.

“Itachi Uchiha.” He said, taking her hand. 

“Great. Walk with me.” 

Itachi frowned but followed her as she turned around and started walking towards the elevators.

“First and foremost, your brother is physically fine. He only has a split lips and some bruises on his chest because of the seat belt.”

“If he’s fine why can’t I see him?” Itachi asked as they waited for the elevator.

“I was getting to that.” She said giving him a pointed look. “He is  _ physically _ fine. I’m not so sure about his mind. You’ll be able to see him, that’s exactly where I’m taking you right now. However, I could not let you walk straight into his room without talking to you a little first, that’s why I added the ‘no visitors’ to his file.”

Itachi waited for more but the woman did not say anything else. She still didn’t say a work when they got on the elevator. She only started talking again when they stopped in front of a room.

“Look inside.” She said. Itachi looked through the window and he could see his brother lying in his bed, a TV remote in hand.

“This is a man who got fucking lucky and does not give a fuck about it.” Tsunade said. Itachi frowned at her in response.

“There’s an investigation going on about what caused the accident. It’s not going to take long because all witnesses are saying that there was nothing on the road when the accident occurred. We’re in the middle of the summer and it hasn’t rain in days, thus the ground wasn’t slippery.”

“What are you saying exactly?”

“Your brother  _ voluntarily  _ wrapped his car around a tree Itachi.”

“Mr. Uchiha.” Itachi corrected her. He was not comfortable hearing her calling him by his first name while she was saying that his brother had seemingly tried to kill himself today.

“Alright,  _ Mr.  _ Uchiha. You have an hour to talk to your brother, then we’re bringing him upstair in the psych ward. He’ll be on suicide watch for 72 hours and our psychologist will decide if he should be released after that.”

Itachi was shock. He wanted to say something but before he could she opened the door and slightly pushed him outside before leaving.

Sasuke did not even look to see who had enter the hospital room. He just kept changing channel as Itachi watched him. After a couple of minutes, Itachi could not take the silence anymore.

“Why?” He asked.

Sasuke answer with a question of his own, still looking at the TV. “How long?”

“What?”

Sasuke threw the remote at the wall and looked at him furiously. “How long have you know?”

“For about a month.” Itachi whispered as he came to sit in the chair near Sasuke’s bed.

“For a  _ month?”  _ Sasuke’s voice cracked on the last word. “And you didn’t thought about telling me sooner?”

“I-” Itachi started.

Sasuke interrupted him. “Well, I’ll tell you why if you really wanna know.”

Itachi looked at him attentively.

“Because I’m a selfish bastard, that’s why. Now get the fuck out of this room.” Sasuke said aggressively.

Itachi did not move from his chair. “GET THE FUCK OUT!” Sasuke screamed.

Itachi still hesitated but he finally stood up and started walking towards the door. When he was about to open it, Sasuke talked again. “Wait,” he whispered. “Come back.”

Itachi turned back to Sasuke and brought the chair closer to the bed. “Tell me.” Sasuke said.

Thus Itachi talked. He told Sasuke everything about his illness, about the trials to cure him that could kill him, and about the fact that he’s been seeing a therapist since to help him deal with it.

Sasuke stared at the ceiling the whole time, sometimes nodding his head in acknowledgement to Itachi’s words. When Itachi was finally done, Sasuke talked.

“I think I should see a therapist too.”

* * *

 

Itachi got out of Sasuke’s room when his hour was done and stepped inside the nearest janitor’s closet. He composed Naruto’s phone number with difficulty as his hands are shaking uncontrollably.

“ _ Dr. Uzumaki’s office, Konohamaru speaking, how may I help you?”  _

“Hi, this is Itachi Uchiha. I need to talk to Dr. Uzumaki.” Itachi said in the phone.

“ _ I’m sorry but he his with a patient. He’ll call you as soon as he’s done.”  _

“You don’t understand, I really,  _ really _ , need to talk to Naruto.” Itachi said, his breathing becoming really fast. 

Konohamaru might not be as good as his adoptive brother to read people, but he had seen enough panic attack to recognize one, even on the phone. 

“ _ I’ll go fetch him.” _

Itachi sighed in relieve when he heard Naruto’s voice on the other side. He tried to talk as Naruto asked what’s happening but he could not control his breathing. 

“ _ Can you tell me where you are Itachi? I’ll come to you.” _

“Kingston General Hospital.” Itachi answered. Then, for the first time in a really long time, Itachi started crying.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: mention of suicide

Sasuke had spent the last 72 hours bored out of his mind. 3 days ago a couple of nurses had brought him to a room on the fifth floor, the crazy’s floor, and he had not left this room since. Except for some meeting with a therapist.

He probably could have left his room at any time in the afternoon since the nurses had encouraged him to go mingle with other patients of the floor, but he definitely didn’t feel like spending time with the weirdos. That’s why he spent the entirety of his time listening to the clock ticking on the wall. He had come to the conclusion that this was pretty annoying and that anyone would go mad if they had to listen to this for too long.

Luckily for him, he had to listen to this thing for only 1,800 tick. Then it would be time for his final “test”. If he seemed sane enough they would release him back in the world.

Thinking about it, Sasuke was pretty sure that if he only spoke the truth on this evaluation the psychologist would decide to keep him here for awhile. But Sasuke considered himself a skilled liar, thus he’d probably be out of here tonight.

544

543

542

541

There was a knock on the door and his assigned psychologist, Dr. Shizune Oyone, entered. Sasuke gave her a brief look.

“You’re 9 minutes early.”

“I didn’t want to leave you waiting longer.” She answered while taking the chair in the corner of the room.

Sasuke barely refrained from rolling his eyes. “We’re not going to your office?”

Shizune sighed and looked at the notebook in her hands. “There was an accident earlier and let’s say that my office is not accessible for a couple of hours.” She definitely was not going to mentioned that one of her patient had been angry and decided to remove his pants and relieved himself on the carpet. 

“Alright, I already know that you're not going to start talking on your own so we'll do like last time. I'll ask questions and you answered them with as much details as you can give. You can always refuse to answer a question but it can have an impact on my final report.”

Sasuke nodded. The first time he had met with Shizune, he had spent the entire hour staring at her. She had stared back, sometimes looking away to write a note but she never said a word. Sasuke had been really annoyed and he knew that he would never get away from here if he didn’t talk.  

He didn’t want to talk about anything but he had too. That’s why the second time he had met with her, he stopped staring after 30 minutes and told her to ask him questions. That way it would be easier to talk. She didn’t poke into his life, just ask some basic questions about where he went to school, his friends, work colleagues, etc. She never mentioned his family, though. He felt like this was going to change right about now.

Sasuke sat straighter in bed and crossed his legs, being cautious to not cross his arms too.

“How are you doing today?”

“Fine, better than yesterday.”

“How is it better?” 

“Well, my head hurts a lot less and I’m hoping my time here is almost over.”

Shizune nodded. “Let’s jump right in then. Have you previously been admitted to the hospital?.”

“Yes.”

“How many times?”

“Three.”

“What were the reasons?”

Sasuke answered without hesitation. “I broke an ankle when I was 7 and I tried to kill myself later on. Twice.”

“Why did you tried to kill yourself?”

Sasuke sighed, he definitely didn’t want to answer that question. “The first time was for some stupid reason… My parents had just died and I was sitting on the dock behind our house where we used to spend our Sunday afternoon. I noticed that my parent’s boat was gone and something broke inside my chest. I jumped in the water and voluntarily started breathing in. Itachi heard me and got me out, he called an ambulance even though I was physically fine after he got me out.”

“And the second time?” Shizune asked as she scribbled as fast as possible in her notes.

“I’m not comfortable talking about this one.”

Shizune frowned. She was a little bit disappointed to see that Sasuke would not open up more, but she was also stunned to see that he had answer at all. This was definitely going more smoothly than what she had thought.

“How do you feel about your brother?”

“I’m mad at him. He’s always saying to me that we should be more open about our feelings with each other but he’s probably worst than I am. He is an hypocrite. I am one too, but at least I don’t pretend I’m not.”

“Do you love your brother?”

Sasuke blushed. “What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I do!”

“Have you ever told him?” Sasuke shook his head and Shizune took that for a no. “Has he ever told you?”

“Maybe once or twice… I’m not sure. He shows it, though.” Sasuke thought about all the time he heard Itachi lurking behind door after he had screamed himself awake, how he made sure there was always tomatoes for him in the fridge, and how he had came to terrorize the kids that had picked on him at school when he was younger. Itachi had always taken care of him, even when there parents were still there.

_ And now, he is going to die, _ Sasuke thought. He stood up from the bed and started pacing.

“Why are you such in a hurry to leave, Sasuke? Be sincere with me.” 

Sasuke snickered. “Who wouldn’t be in a hurry to leave this place?” 

Shizune gave him a cold glance.

Sasuke sighed and went back to sit on the bed. “I have a date tonight.” He whispered.

Shizune’s eyes grew bigger. “A date?” She was not sure if she had understood correctly.

“Yes.”

“Tell me about them.”

Sasuke was surprised that she didn’t assigned a gender to his date. “His name is Naruto.” Sasuke thought he saw something like recognition in Shizune’s eyes but it was gone really fast. “We met two weeks ago while I was doing research for my book and he help me figure things out for my book.”

“Did he help with anything else?”

Sasuke didn't want to answer that question but he guess that showing emotion would help a lot in getting him out of here. “I guess he help me in a more personal way too? I never really considered having a relationship before but it seems feasible with him. It even seem like a good idea.”

“Why?”

“He makes me feel good. I was not lying when I said that I hadn’t slept in two days before the accident. That’s was because I felt excited about this. It kept me from sleeping.” 

“The idea of a future date prevented you from sleeping?”

Sasuke frowned. “No we had lunch on Monday and I was waiting for his call, let’s say. He asked me on a date the day of the accident.”

“That wasn’t an accident, right?”

_ That’s a tricky question, _ Sasuke thought. “It was definitely not premeditated.” 

Shizune nodded, that was the best she would get out of him. “What is the first thing that you are going to do when you get out of here?”

“I’ll try my best to remember Naruto’s number and ask him if the date is still on.”

Shizune smiled and closed her notebook.

 

* * *

 

It’s Saturday morning, the day of his supposed date with Sasuke, and Naruto was having breakfast at his dad’s.  _ Supposed date _ because Naruto hadn’t heard from Sasuke since he had called him Wednesday morning. Maybe Sasuke didn’t want to go on a date with him anymore. You don’t give radio silence to someone you’re supposed to date - especially if the certain someone send you a countless number of messages. Maybe Sasuke was annoyed with him. 

“So Konohamaru, why did you call for an urgent meeting?” Minato asked. 

Naruto looked up from his potatoes to look at his brother. Konohamaru had told him that it was dad asking to move their lunch date. He had said that dad had a dentist appointment Sunday morning so he couldn’t make it for lunch. Thinking about it, what dentist was open on a Sunday? Naruto mentally slapped himself.

“Naruto’s depressed dad.” Konohamaru said. 

“I’m not depressed!” Naruto exclaimed. “I’m just a little bit down lately.”

“ _ A little bit down _ , my ass. I haven’t seen a smile on your face since Wednesday morning and you were bursting with joy then.”

Minato looked at Naruto in concerned. “Is everything alright Naruto?”

“I’m fine.”

Minato definitely didn’t seemed convince. “Talk to me, Naruto.”

Naruto saw Konohamaru concealed smile in the corner of his eyes and he felt like throwing a fork at him.  _ What a fucking traitor.  _ “Something happened with a patient and I’m still concern about it. That’s all.”

Minato nodded in understanding but Konohamaru was not going to let his big brother get away like that. “What about your date today?”

“What date?” Minato’s head snapped up.

“There’s no date it seems. I’m not sure if there ever was.” Naruto looked down at his plate.

“Ha! See that’s why he’s brooding dad, not because of some patient!” 

Naruto threw a handful of potatoes at Konohamaru’s face. “Look I’m not a kid anymore. I can take rejection. I’m not depressed, I’m not brooding, and I definitely don’t need an emergency meeting so that my daddy can make me feel better. I can deal with my own fucking emotions. So shut up, Konohamaru. ”

“I can see by your outburst of violence that you are doing just  _ fine,  _ Mr. I-Have-A-Phd-In-Emotional-Control.”

“ _ Boys, enough!”  _ Minato hadn’t even raised his voice, but they both knew that it was time to really shut up. “Naruto, tell me about this date of yours. Is it with the fellow you mention last week?”

Naruto smiled softly. “Yes, with Sasuke. We had agreed on something for tonight but when I wrote to him to confirm, he never answered.”

Konohamaru sighed dramatically. “He never cancelled then. Just go to his place and pick him up anyway. If he didn’t want to see you he would have told you to fuck off after the tenth message you sent him!”

Naruto blushed - it was probably over twenty by now - and looked at his dad.

“This is going to sound weird, but I agree with your brother. Maybe he lost his phone or erased his contact by accident. You can never know.”

In the end, Naruto left his dad’s place feeling a lot better. He was still worried about Itachi, though. He hadn't been lying to his dad when he mentioned something about a patient. Wednesday afternoon had been horrible. 

  
  
  


Naruto had left his office right after Itachi had told him where he was, apologizing to Tenten and her “parents” on his way out. He had no idea on how he was supposed to find Itachi in the immensity that was Kingston General Hospital, but he’d tried anyway. 

Coming in, he had went directly to the reception and asked about Mr. Uchiha. He wasn’t sure if Itachi had hurt himself or if something had changed with his condition. Maybe he wasn’t even the one who got hurt. In any case, the nurse had given him a room number, thus Naruto had thanked her and ran upstair to see if Itachi was there.

However, when he had gotten there the room had been empty. He had peaked in all the other rooms on the floor - sorry patient's intimacy - and had been about to go through all the other doors before he had thought of calling Itachi. Maybe his phone wouldn’t be on silence.

That’s how he had found Itachi in a janitor closet, only two door next to the room the receptionist had told him about. And it had been bad.

Itachi had been laying on his side at the far end of the closet, breathing hard and fast, and his face had been wet with tears.

Naruto had seen Itachi several time in court and he had never thought that he would one day see the man in such a bad state. Even after speaking to him about his parent’s death Itachi hadn't lost control of himself that way. Something really bad must have happened.

Naruto had entered the closet and had locked the door behind him. He had not been sure that Itachi had even noticed him yet, but he had been certain of one thing, Itachi definitely wouldn’t want anyone else to see him like this.

It had been completely dark in the closet so Naruto had turned on the lamp on his phone - being very careful not to point it directly on Itachi - and had knelt in front of him.

“Itachi can you look at me?” 

Itachi hadn't moved but his breathing had accelerated even more. Naruto had been about to touch him when the sound of Itachi’s phone had made him jumped. He had picked up the phone, had noticed the name “Kakashi” on the screen, and had quickly turned it off before putting it in his own pocket. 

“Itachi?” There had been no reaction. Naruto had putted both his hands on Itachi’s shoulders, forcing him to sit up. He had putted his hand on Itachi’s chin to make him look at him and to feel his pulse - too fast. The dim light of his phone had been just enough to see their faces in the dark.

“Itachi, I need you to focus on my voice and on my breathing.” Naruto had taken Itachi’s hand and had putted it on his chest. “Just breath in when you feel me doing it. Everything is fine.” 

It had taken a good 10 minutes before Itachi’s pulse and breathing had came back to normal. Naruto had released his chin and his hand and had sat down next to him, making sure that his shoulder was slightly touching Itachi’s.

“I told my brother about my cancer and he tried to kill himself.”

Naruto had looked at Itachi with surprise on his face and he had noticed fresh tears on Itachi’s face. Naruto couldn’t have resist after that, he had grabbed Itachi in a hug.

To his uttermost surprise, Itachi had returned the hug and had silently cried in his arms for a really long time.

  
  
  


So yeah, that was a good reason to brood according to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorryyyyyyy! 
> 
> I'm really freaking late but with University and work I barely have any free time. I'll post the following chapter on Sunday(I know I owe you guys more than 2 chapters since it's been more than a month but that's the best I can do), after that I'll try to go back to my "once every two weeks" schedule. 
> 
> Let's hope it works out!


	11. Chapter 11

Sasuke thought that he had gotten lucky when he picked up his stuff at a desk near the hospital exit. He had been released after the required 72 hours and had only be "strongly recommended" to go see a psychologist on his own. He could probably handle staring in the eyes of some dude once a week. Maybe even talk just a little. He had told Itachi he'd try after all.

As much as Sasuke wanted to leave the hospital as fast as possible, the man handing him his personal belonging had only given him his wallet, watch, and sweatpant , saying that his clothes had been too soaked in blood to be salvaged - he had not been really hurt, just a small cut on his brow and a slight concussion, but head injuries tend to bleed a lot - and that his phone had not been recovered. Given that he didn't mention any laptop, Sasuke guessed that it had probably flew out of the window after the impact. " _Luckily I decided to wrap my car into a tree_ after  _the meeting with Kakashi," Sasuke thought._ He could just give a call to Kakashi and he would send him the file he had saved, nothing was lost.

Now, he just needed to find a phone and call a cab. He needed someone to drive him to the store to buy a new phone and a new laptop and he didn't feel like seeing Itachi just yet. The awkward silence could wait a couple more hours.

The phones were pretty easy to find. There were three right by the door, the only problem was that it was not the type of phone that accepted credit card and Sasuke had no cash on him. He even tried asking politely a lady nearby if he could use her cellphone but she gave him a dirty look.

Sasuke sighed and got out. No way was he going to ask someone for change. He'd just walk there and maybe he would see a cab on his way. In any case, it was only a fifteen minutes walk there, not that exhausting.

On his way there, Sasuke thought about Naruto. Well not really about Naruto but mostly about how he was going to contact him now that he had lost his phone number. He recalled dropping the cup with his number on it in his office trash can a couple weeks ago. He didn't empty it often but he was pretty sure that he had done it Tuesday night. And sure, he was game to go search their house trash to find it, but the trash usually got collected on Wednesday and Itachi never forgot about that. So searching the trash would be useless. He could probably google Naruto. He knew his last name, since Gaara had told him at the prison. How many Naruto Uzumaki could there really be in Kingston? Not many, he was certain.

He could always take the chance that Naruto would not think that he was avoiding him on purpose. But he wanted to go on that date and even him would have drop it if he had received three days of silence radio.

" _Alright, so google it will be,"_  Sasuke thought as he finally made his way inside the store.

* * *

Naruto almost crashed his car as he saw what he thoughts was Sasuke going inside an electronic store. " _I'm sorry god of parking places. Please keep me protected."_ He thought as he hurriedly parked his car in the spot for disabled right in front of the door.

Once inside, he realized that it was kind of creepy to run around looking to see if it was really Sasuke that he had saw coming in. He needed a reason to be here. He'd just pick up something cheap on the shelves and make his way to the register slowly looking to see if Sasuke was somewhere around.

Naruto nodded to himself and as he sharply turned in the first row, he solidly bumped into someone. Naruto made a little squeal - a very manly one - as they collided and didn't have time to do anything as the other man fell on the ground.

"Shit, I'm really sorry! I wasn't looking and…" Naruto didn't have time to finish his sentence that the other man was up and leaving giving him a dirty look.

"Well, that was awkward." Naruto said as he heard someone chuckling behind him. He turned around and there was Sasuke. He was leaning against the shelf nearby, a bag in hand, only wearing a white shirt and grey sweatpant that seemed pretty dirty - wait were those blood droplets?

"You're bloody." Naruto said looking at Sasuke's crotch.

Sasuke briefly looked down. "Hi yourself."

"Hey! What are you doing here?" Naruto slapped himself mentally. He was so stupid sometimes, it's not like he was really surprised to see Sasuke here. He had followed him inside like a stalker after all.

"Buying a new phone and computer." Sasuke answered, and noticing Naruto still eying his pants he explained himself. "I didn't murder anyone by the way. I was in a car accident this week and I just got out of the hospital, this is my blood."

Naruto's eyes grew bigger. "I think I'd rather you'd kill someone than hurt yourself." He breathed.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and almost choked on the sweetness of the words. "Well no one died. Except maybe my phone, car, and computer." And also his dignity because he hadn't taken a shower since Wednesday night and Naruto could probably smell the stink on him from where he was standing.

Sasuke took his new phone from his back pocket and gave him to Naruto who looked at him with interrogation. "I don't have your number anymore."

"Oh, sure!" Naruto said as he distractedly type his informations.

"So what were you doing here?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto almost dropped the phone while handing it back. He hurriedly looked on his right and picked up the first thing he saw. "I needed this. We can leave now."

Sasuke snickered as Naruto passed by him and walked toward the door. "You should probably pay for it first."

Naruto backpedaled and quickly went to the counter before rejoining Sasuke by the door. They both went outside and Sasuke walked straight to Naruto's car where he could see a parking ticket.

"That was a pricey USB key." Sasuke said as he picked the paper between the wiper and the windshield to hand it to Naruto.

"But I said I was sorry." Naruto whispered low enough that Sasuke couldn't hear him.

"What was that?" Sasuke asked.

"Nothing. Hm… Do you need a ride home?"

"I was going to call a cab…" Sasuke started, but seeing the expectant look on Naruto's face he changed his mind. "Sure, thanks."

The ride there was pretty quiet except for Sasuke giving indications but it was comfortable.

Naruto spoke for the first time when he parked his car in front of Sasuke's house. "I guess I'll see you in…" Naruto looked at the time on the dashboard, it was 5pm. "...2 hours?"

"Yes, don't be late. You can't lie about getting lost anymore." Sasuke said as he got out of the car.

"There's no way I'm gonna lose even a second off of this date." Naruto answered smiling.

Sasuke smiled too, closed the door, and started walking away from the car. Naruto lost his smile the second Sasuke's back was to him. Sasuke had had a car accident. He had gotten hurt, his car was wreck, and…

"Fuck!" Naruto cursed as he backed out of Sasuke's driveway.

He had plan to bring them to the racetrack that one of his friend owned. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Sasuke's car was such a beautiful beast, he had thought the man might enjoy a night of racing without any speed limit - come on, nobody drove a Mercedes-AMG GT R just for the sake of it. This definitely wasn't going to happen tonight. He needed a change of scenario and fast.

"I need to call Sakura." Naruto said aloud. He pushed the little pressure compartment on the ceiling to take his sunglasses and a set of keys tumbled out at the same time. It gave him an idea.

* * *

The first thing Sasuke noticed when he entered his house was that it smelled good, intensely good. The second thing was the noise coming from the kitchen which indicated that Itachi wasn't alone. Surprising, strange even.

He removed his shoes by the door and slowly walked toward the kitchen - he had to pass through if he wanted to go to his bedroom downstairs. Itachi was standing in front of the stove and two persons were sitting at the breakfast table watching him. Wait, was that Kakashi and… Suigetsu?

"What the hell is happening here?" Sasuke asked.

Suigetsu was the only one to be startled. "Sass', my man! I'm so glad to see you!" He stood up from his chair and tried to go in for a hug but Sasuke pushed him away.

"Is this supposed to be an intervention?" Sasuke asked with loath in his voice.

"We're the Suicide Squad and we're here to…" Suigetsu started but Itachi cut him off.

"We're just having dinner."

"You guys can have dinner all you want but I'm going out."

Itachi frowned. "Sasuke, can we talk?"

Sasuke didn't answer at first, but then he crossed the kitchen to go outside on the terrace. Itachi handed his wooden spoon to Kakashi and followed him.

"Look, you don't have to leave. I can kick them out." Itachi said.

"Why did you invite them in the first place Itachi? Suigetsu I could understand, but Kakashi?"

"I didn't invite any of them. Suigetsu got here at ass o'clock saying that he's been texting and calling you for days without any answer. As for Kakashi, he got here 15 minutes ago saying that he had something to give you and he ended up inviting himself for dinner. I'm making tuna by the way and a tomato salad. I know you like that"

"A tomato salad?" Sasuke asked incredulously.

"Cherry tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes, Evergreen tomatoes.." Sasuke stopped listening as Itachi kept listing a few other type of tomatoes that he had never heard about. Was Itachi blabbering? He did look kind of nervous.

"Itachi…" Sasuke started, but Itachi kept talking about how he went to the public market to get his favorite food and Sasuke felt as if he had fell in a new dimension.

"Oh god, Itachi, shut up!"

Itachi stopped talking and Sasuke kind of felt bad about it. "Look, I'm sorry. This look… great? Awesome even, but I'm going out. I'm not running away from you, I have a date."

"You have a date?"

"Yes. I really need to go get ready right now."

Sasuke was about to go back inside. "Keep me some of that "salad", I'll eat it tomorrow." He said standing on the threshold. 

"A date?" Itachi said in response, not making a move to go back inside as Sasuke closed the door.

Sasuke crossed the kitchen without looking at anyone and made his way downstair. He only had an hour left to get ready before Naruto got here. He was pretty sure that Naruto wouldn't mind waiting a little for him, but with Suigetsu nearby it would end up being catastrophic.

When Sasuke got out of the bathroom 20 minutes later, Kakashi was waiting for him sitting on his bed. They stared at each other in silence before Kakashi talked.

"I feel responsible."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I'm not your kid, Kakashi. Nothing I do is your fault, or even your concern."

Sasuke could see how worried Kakashi looked and it didn't sit well with him. Kakashi wasn't supposed to care about him, he was just his boss. "Do you run to all your author's houses when they do something shitty? I heard Kabuto had an overdose two weeks ago, I'm pretty sure he didn't found you sitting on his bed when he came home from the hospital. Am I right?"

That was true, and it made Kakashi more uncomfortable than he should be. "You know what they say; 'you never forget your first.'"

This sounded dirty coming from Kakashi, but Sasuke knew that he was trying to cover himself with a dose of humour.

"Thanks for the concern. Now, please get out before I throw something at you."

Kakashi stood up and started to leave. However just before opening the door he added. "Were you going to throw your towel? If so I think I'm gonna stay for awhile."

Sasuke threw a book right at his face and missed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it y'all. The date is going to happen in two weeks! Hope you enjoyed


	12. Chapter 12

Naruto freaked out all the way back to his condo, wondering if his back up plan was going to be alright. He had had all the evening planned out before, Lee, one of his good friend, had agreed to loan him his racetrack for the night. He had been pretty confident with this idea since Sasuke owned - had owned now that he had probably wreck it in his accident - an amazing car. You couldn’t not love driving fast when you were driving such a car. After the accident though, it felt a little awkward to bring him there. Maybe Sasuke would feel self-conscious or maybe too nervous to drive one of Lee’s car full speed.

This back up plan of his could only work if Sasuke was really interested in his future book subject. He had thought of it when the set of keys had fallen from his car’s ceiling. The keys where of the old Kingston penitentiary*, the former maximum security prison that had closed in 2013. He’d stolen them from his godfather a bit after that and had never thought about giving them back, they had spend the last 4 years in his car completely forgotten.

That was kind of a last minute idea but it could work, he had asked Chouji to prepare him some stuff that could be eaten cold so he could bring it. There was no lounge at the prison like there was at the racetrack but they could always eat on the rooftop. A picnic on a rooftop under the stars was romantic no matter what type of building it was on, right? 

When Naruto parked his car near his condo he had only 30 minutes left to get ready - it was a 15 minutes car ride to Sasuke’s place and no way was he going to be late. He ran up the stairs as fast as he could and almost dislocated a shoulder trying to force open his door, forgetting to unlock it before attempting to open it.

“Come on, Naruto, get a grip.” He whispered under his breath as he fumbled with his key for a couple of seconds.

He let out a loud exhale when he finally got the door open and ran to his shower, really thankful that he had set up his clothes for the night on the chair in his room before leaving for Millhaven this morning.

He was finally ready and halfway down the stairs when he realised that he could bring something else to make it interesting. He looked at his watch, and deciding that Sasuke could probably wait for him two minutes - or that he could run a red light or two on his way - he climbed back the stairs to go fetch something in his closet.

* * *

 

Sasuke had been waiting in the entrance hall for five minutes when a car finally pulled up in the driveway. Itachi, Kakashi, and Suigetsu all turned their head towards the door as the car’s lights shone through the window. 

“I don’t want to see any of you looking through that window when I close the door.” He said to them, noticing that Suigetsu was about to get up from his stool at the kitchen island.

“Way to ruin my fun, Sass’.” Suigetsu sighed. He sat back on his stool and added, looking hopeful. “Tell me his name so we can stalk his facebook profile while you’re gone.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes and went out, not deigning Suigetsu with an answer. He walked slowly to the old Mazda 3, not wanting to look too eager and smiled a little when he saw Naruto waving happily to him through the windshield. How he had ended up going out with someone as genuine and happy as Naruto was still a mystery.  _ A great mystery _ , he thought as he opened the passenger door and sat next to Naruto.

_ A quiet mystery, _ he thought after 10 minutes in the car without them talking to each other. He was definitely not a talkative person himself, but Naruto had looked to be one on their last encounters. The silence was only broken 5 minutes later when Naruto started chuckling nervously.

“Sorry, when I’m nervous I either never stop talking or shut up completely.” Naruto said as he finally parked the car in a huge parking lots. “We’re here.”

Sasuke looked around, and except for the light coming from a lamppost in the street several meters away, there was nothing to see.

“Where are we?”

“It’s a surprise!” Naruto opened his door, and smiled to him, trying to give himself a little bit of courage. “Come on, I’ll show you!”

Looking at the dubious look on Sasuke’s face, he put his right hand on his heart and said. “I swear on my honor that I’m not going to kill you and ditch your body in the river.”

Sasuke smirked and finally got out of the car. “You can count me reassured then.”

Naruto laughed a little and went to the back of the car. He picked up what looked like a picnic basket and handed it to Sasuke.

“Are we having a picnic in a creepy deserted parking lot? ‘Cause that would be a first for me.”

“Maybe another time. For now we’re going this way.” Naruto pointed South, towards the river. “A five minutes walk and we’ll be to our final destination.”

“I take it back, I’m not reassured at all.” 

Naruto didn’t say a word, he just shook his head and took a long and quite large black case out of the trunk.

“That thing looks awfully like a gun, Naruto.”

Naruto smiled, picked up a huge backpack and finally closed the trunk of his car with a bang. “Shhh, you’ll ruin the surprise! Follow me.” Naruto started walking, followed shortly by Sasuke.

* * *

The thing that look awfully like it could contain a gun,  _ did _ in fact contain one. A Colt Canada C7 Service rifle to be exact. Naruto had told him after seeing his concerned face all the way to whatever place they were going. He had even offer him to take the gun case to made him feel more comfortable - and less about to be murdered - but Sasuke had refused and just said that he would not walk in front of him, making Naruto laugh.

When they finally reached the top of the little hill they were walking up to, Sasuke could finally see the very large silhouette of a building - more like a group of buildings - near the shore. There was not a lot to be distinguish since no light illuminated it but he figured out soon enough that this was an old prison - huge fences all around and all.

“What the hell?” Sasuke asked. “Are we breaking and entering?”

Naruto smiled, jingling a set of keys in his hands. “Is it illegal if I have the keys?”

“That depends on how you got them.”

Naruto stayed silent, thinking that stealing them was indeed illegal, but except for some teenagers trying to scare themselves no one came around here anyway, unless they were doing something illegal themselves. 

As they got closer, Sasuke started discerning more details, they were almost to the door of the fence when Naruto putted the gun case down, and kneeled on the ground to take something out of his bag. He handed a huge lantern for Sasuke to hold by the handle, before turning it on. The light was bright and they both blinked several time to get accustomed to it. It had a range of about 5 meters, which was pretty good, and Sasuke could now see all the holes that had been cut in the fence nearby. “You look like the perfect adventurer.” Naruto said smiling.

Sasuke smiled a little in answer, with a picnic basket in one hand and a huge lantern in the other he probably looked a lot out of place. “You’re sure there’s not gonna be anyone inside?”

“Inside the fence? Probably, no one inside the buildings though. There is no real security since the electricity is cut around here, but there are still bars at each window with reinforced glass, same for the door. It would be hard to break in without making any noise that alerts the authority. ” 

Naruto lead them through one of the biggest hole in the fence, he probably had the key on his set but he didn’t feel like trying them all to go in, he only knew for sure which key open the main door, and out of the 20 keys on the ring only some were identified with name like “ _ bloc A _ ”,“ _ Armory _ ”, and “ _ Cafeteria _ ”.

They walked the stone path to the entrance in silence, Sasuke was looking around a little bit nervously. There were beer cans, snack papers, and several cigaret butch everywhere he could look at. 

When Naruto placed the gun case on the floor to free his hands and open the door. Sasuke was even more nervous, like someone would run out of the shadow and steal it before gunning them down. 

He jumped when he heard the click of the door and Naruto opened the door. He was almost surprised that the key had worked. “After you.” He entered, follow swiftly with Naruto, who hurriedly closed the door behind him and locked it again - he didn’t want anyone following them inside.

Everything was grey inside, it was dull and cold, but the shiver Sasuke felt coming down his spine was one of excitement. As Sasuke was taking everything in, Naruto took the huge lantern from Sasuke’s hand to put it back in his bag, and got two small flashlights out. He handed one to Sasuke and laughed at the incredulous look the other gave him.

“You had those from the beginning?” He asked.

“Yup, but seeing you with that huge lamp was hilarious.”

Sasuke frowned but didn’t say anything. “Alright so we’ll find the generator room and everything will be a little less creepy.”

“I thought that they had completely cut the electricity.”

“Yes, but if the generator was completely charged when they did, we should be able to have some light at least for the night. The camera are not on that circuit so we’ll be fine for that, only the electric doors and emergency lights will be activated.” Making sure that the door was well locked and picking up all his things, Naruto started walking with Sasuke by his side.

“We just have to walk upstairs, it’ll be one of the first door we’ll see.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“Oh, true.” Naruto put his free hand in his hair and laughed awkwardly looking sheepish. “I do look suspicious. I’ve been here several time when I was younger, my godfather was the warden of this place and he’ll bring me here often. Also, I was there when they discuss the security of Millhaven and it’s pretty much base off of this one so...”

Naruto talked about the prison all the way to the generator room while Sasuke was taking everything in. This was definitely not the type of date he had been expecting, but it was great so far. Naruto was good at telling story, making Sasuke drink in every words he said effortlessly and it was really interesting. 

When they got to the room, Naruto had to try half a dozen keys before he got the good one. Luckily for them the generator was indeed charged and the inside of the room was lit up in a dim light. Naruto put his backpack and gun case in one of the corner, only keeping the keys and flashlight with him.

“Alright so we can look everywhere you want to satisfy your curiosity then we’ll go eat, good plan?”

“Great plan.” 

They spent the next hour walking all around the prison with Naruto telling stories and Sasuke asking questions. After a little while though the subject dropped from their environment to something a bit more personal. Sasuke mentioned how he became a writer - omitting to mention that all the darkness was due in part to his parent death, he didn’t want to scare Naruto off the first night with his drama. 

They shared a lot about themselves, and finally Naruto led them to another locked door. He found the key pretty fast for this one since it was inscribed on it. The door open only to a set of stairs and Sasuke started climbing them without questions, trusting at this point of the night that it was safe to walk in front of Naruto.

Another door - this time unlocked - was at the end of the stairs and Sasuke opened it and stepped through. They were on the huge roof of the prison.

“I didn’t even noticed that it was a full moon tonight.” Sasuke whispered.

“It looks really close from up here.” Naruto indicated the basket that Sasuke was still holding. “Let’s settle in.”

They took out a red and white plaid blanket from the basket and Sasuke laughed. “I should’ve seen this coming.”

“It’s a classic!”

They both sat down, the basket in the middle of them. “What are we having for dinner?” Sasuke asked.

Naruto started getting all the dish and plate he had packed and answered. “I have no clue, I ask a friend of mine for something that doesn’t need to be reheat - he’s a cook - and I just threw everything in the basket with an ice pack. Let’s find out.”

There were three completely opaque tupperware containers, Naruto handed one to Sasuke and took one of the other. 

“I’ve got sushi here.” Sasuke said.

“I’m not sure, it looks like some sort of salad, there’s greenish stuff in this.”

Sasuke took the bowl for him to look at it better. “It’s a tabbouleh salad, pretty good.” Especially considering that there were cherry tomatoes inside of it.

The last container contained cheesecake which made Naruto squealed in delight. They split the sushis and the salad in the plates Naruto had added to the basket, and when they finally got to dessert they dug right into the bowl.

Afterwards, Naruto put everything back in the basket - except for the blanket - and putted it aside. He then laid down, close to Sasuke but not quite enough to touch him, and Sasuke did the same. 

After a couple of minutes, Naruto broke the silence. “Do you know stuff about stars? I’ve always wanted to learn about constellations.”

Sasuke scooted over a little and they were touching at the level of the elbow. He turned a little towards Naruto and pointed towards the sky. “You see the seven stars there that forms a pattern? That is Canis Major. It’s brightest stars is name Sirius and it is the star closer to our sun. It is also the brightest star in the sky.”

“Oh, but I thought that the brightest star was the Jesus one, you know the one in the North.”

“You’re thinking about Polaris. It’s not even in the top 10 of the most luminous. It’s the brightest star of its constellation though. Right there,” he directed his finger a little more to the North. “In Ursa Minor. We can usually find the constellation Draco a little bit to the West, but it’s not clear enough for us to see it tonight.”

“That’s awesome.” Naruto murmured. 

“If we were at a higher altitude there’s a couple more that I could show you, but from here that’s all I can do.” Sasuke dropped his hand back on the blanket and it rested on top of Naruto.

“We’ll get higher someday and you’ll tell me.” Naruto turned his hand to grip Sasuke’s in his own. Sasuke only hummed as they kept looking at the stars in silence.

It was about an hour later when Sasuke remembered to ask again what Naruto had brought the gun for.

Naruto sat up slowly, letting go of Sasuke’s hand. “Oh yeah, I was about to forget about that. You remember that first time we had coffee together? Well you were working and I rudely decided to join you. I told you about the gun they used in prison and how it’s special because the recoil is directed backwards instead of upwards?”

“I remember.”

“Well if it does not make you uncomfortable, I wanted you to experience it yourself. I know it is way easier to explain something in word when you’ve tried it for real.”

“I’ve never fired a gun but I’m willing to try.”

Naruto jumped on his feet and extended his hand to help Sasuke up. He quickly rolled up the blanket and pushed it in the basket with force.

The way back to the generator room was done pretty quickly. Naruto picked up all the stuff he had left there and lead them to a small corridor that connected the large building to a smaller one. 

“There’s a place for practice shooting in the far back.”

Several targets were still hanging around the practice room, most of them already filled with hole. There was, luckily for them, 2 emergency light in this room which make it easier to show all the necessary tricks to Sasuke. Naruto showed him how to load the gun, and where to place it on his arm as to not be harmed too much by the recoil.

“I’m going to shoot a couple of time just to help you see the movement of it, it won’t be that noisy but don’t stand too close. ”

Naruto shot three fast consecutive shots, and when he was done they both looked at the target. Sasuke’s eyes widen and he whistled when he noticed the 3 new holes on the target, 2 in the chest, 1 in the head.

“Impressive.”

“Still wanna try?” Naruto asked giving the gun to Sasuke.

Sasuke only nodded and Naruto gave him the gun, making some adjustment on his posture once Sasuke thought he was ready. The first shot completely surprised Sasuke and he almost dropped the gun. 

“Shit!” He cursed.

Naruto chuckled softly. “Try again now that you know what to expect.” And Sasuke did, he shot several time before he first hit the target, but it was right in the heart.

“This is exhilarating.” 

Naruto just laughed and as he was about to hand Sasuke more munition to keep firing all the lights turned off. The generator was completely dead now.

“I think it’s a sign that we should pack up and go home.” Naruto said a bit disappointed.

“Yeah, unfortunately.”

* * *

 

“This is definitely cliché but I’ve been wanting to do this all night - well except for the 5 minutes where I thought that our final destination would be death.” Sasuke said with a smirk slowly leaning over the shift stick of the car.

Naruto leaned in too and stopped about halfway, waiting for Sasuke to make the last movement.

Naruto felt like his body was being electrified, even if it started only as a slow touch of lips. He pressed in a little more, seeking this amazing sensation and Sasuke pressed back, sucking Naruto’s lower lips softly. Unable to contain himself anymore, Naruto brought his right hand up in Sasuke’s hair, pulling him even more to him turning the exchange into a full on fiery and passionate open mouthed kiss, eliciting soft moan from Sasuke. In this moment they both felt like never letting the other go, living in that moment forever.  

The kiss ended with both of them a little out of breath, huge smiles across their faces.

“That was… really awesome.” Naruto said in a whisper after a minute of silence. Sasuke chuckled a little and was about to go in for another kiss when Naruto added, “Not to ruin the mood but… is someone spying on us from the window?”

Sasuke sharply turned his head towards the house and groaned, “Suigetsu.”

Naruto laughed a little, guessing that the man was either a friend of Sasuke or a member of his family. “Do you think he can see us?” He asked.

“Only one way to find out.” Sasuke said before raising his middle finger in direction of the house. The curtains were closed abruptly and the silhouette disappeared from the window. “Sorry about this.”

Naruto guffawed, slapping the steering wheel once or twice. “Dude, no problem. I know everything about nosy friends. My two best friends have probably been waiting for me in my living room for at least 2 hours.” Naruto kissed him softly on the cheek and added. “I guess I should let you go now, before he decides to come watch us from the backseat.” 

Sasuke smirk and opening the car door stated, “I hope I’ll see you soon.”

Naruto beamed as Sasuke left his car.

* * *

 

When Sasuke got to his room, Suigetsu was laying on his bed, both arm behind his head with the creepiest smile on his face.

“What is that awful smile about?”

Suigetsu never wiped the smile from his face as he answered. “You just make me feel really special.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems that my “2 weeks” ended up being almost a whole year, I'm really sorry about that. I've been struggling a lot with school and work, being full time at university while having a 30 hours job all fall and winter is pretty hard. I don't take summer class but I work 60 hours a week to be able to pay for my education without crawling in debts.
> 
> I started working again on this story this week, since I have a week off. I have the lay out of several future chapters written but they are far from completed. I'll do my best to post more in the following weeks or months.
> 
> If you are still following this story, I thank you with all my heart!
> 
> Good day y'all!
> 
>  
> 
> *Kingston Penitentiary was converted into a museum after it closed. However, for the sake of this story it’s not. It’s just an abandoned prison in Kingston, Ontario.


	13. Chapter 13

_ “You just make me feel really special.” _

 

“You feel special… What the hell are you talking about?” Sasuke asked, stepping entirely in his room. He went to his bedside table to plug in his newly bought phone - it had died pretty fast since he had had only 45 minutes to charge it before the date - then stood in front of his bed, towering over Suigetsu.

“I’m feeling special because I’ve just witnessed Sasuke Uchiha’s  _ first _ kiss!” Suigetsu said, sitting straight on the bed and bouncing a little on it.

“Wipe that smile off your face, that was not my first kiss.”

“I’m sorry to tell you this Sasuke, but that time Karin kissed you when we were 7 does not count as a kiss.”

“Think whatever you want, it’s not like I invited you to watch.”

Sasuke turned his back on Suigetsu and picked up some sweatpants and a white long sleeve shirt in the dresser. As he was about to close the door Suigetsu said teasingly, “You’re blushing Sass’.”

Sasuke closed the door a bit harder than necessary, and looked at himself in the mirror, he was indeed a little red in the cheeks. Tonight had been exciting, it had nothing to do with Suigetsu referring to this as his first kiss - even if it kind of was. He changed quickly, throwing his navy shirt and black pants in the hamper, then started brushing his teeth. 

It had been a really good night, better than he had imagined. He could still feel his lips tingled from the kiss he had shared with Naruto and it made him feel good, like he was whole again. He knew that he should not be thinking like that. This was going too fast. He had tried to kill himself only 3 days ago, a single date could not fixed how he had been feeling for the last 7 years. It couldn’t chase away the pain so fast, but it could dull it for awhile at least and Sasuke was going to embrace that. Nothing was fixed with him, but for tonight he could pretend that everything was alright.

He shook his head to discard his thought and spitted the remnant of toothpaste in the sink. He rinsed his mouth with a mint mouthwash and passed his tongue on his teeth to make sure they were soft. Satisfied, he exited the bathroom to find that Suigetsu was still in his bed, and had even move under the cover.

“Why are you still here?” Sasuke asked, sighting as he lift the cover on the opposite side of where Suigetsu was laying.

“I came all the way from London to see your pretty face. Like hell I’m gonna leave you so soon.” Suigetsu answered. He did not stop smiling but it was hard, when he remembered the reason he had come to Canada.

“Whatever.”

“I want to know all the details, Sass’. Don’t leave me hanging.”

“You’re a nosy little bitch, you know that, right?”

Suigetsu just smiled and scooted a little bit closer to Sasuke. Sasuke exhaled, crossed his hand over his stomach and started to recount the night. He was fixing the ceiling all throughout his tell, not wanting to see Suigetsu’s satisfied smile.

Surprisingly enough, Suigetsu mostly stayed silent. He laughed a little at him when he mentioned that he briefly thought that Naruto was about to kill him, but except for that, he only hummed to show that he was still listening.

“- and before we left he had me tried the gun -”

Suigetsu interrupted him, almost screaming. “You  _ tried _ the gun? Oh my god that’s awesome!”

Sasuke smirked, and looked at the jealous look on Suigetsu’s face.“Yeah, that was great, I even got one of the target. Right in the heart.” he bragged a little.

“What kind of gun was it by the way?”

“Colt Canada C7.”

Suigetsu’s mouth opened in surprise. “But that’s an  _ assault _ rifle Sasuke. It’s not legal to own that kind of gun in Canada, unless you're working directly under the government or something. How can this dude have one?”

Sasuke frowned. “I didn’t asked.” He hadn’t really been in the mood to interrogate Naruto earlier, and honestly he didn’t know much about gun possession in Canada. If Suigetsu wasn’t a freak that loved everything that could be considered a weapon he probably would never have known that the rifle wasn’t legal to own.

“Who the hell is this dude?” Suigetsu wondered under his breath before adding louder. “Do you think he’s some sort of criminal? That’d be exciting! Sasuke Uchiha dating a bad boy criminal.”

“He’s  _ not _ a criminal.”

“Sass’ you’ve known him for like 2 minutes, he’s not gonna reveal that he’s a criminal mastermind until  _ at least _ the fifth date.”

Sasuke tried to punch him in the arm but it ended up being pretty weak considering how they were laying on the bed. “Shut up.”

“But seriously what do you know about the guy? What’s his job?”

“He mentioned something about being a doctor once.”

“Dr Evil is a doctor. Well, at least yours is not bald.” Suigetsu looked thoughtful and took his phone from where he had put it under the pillow. “What’s his name? We can google him.”

Sasuke swiftly grabbed the phone from Suigetsu hands and put it next to his on the bedside table. “Let me feel good about this for tonight at least. I’ll try to find more about him next time we meet.” Sasuke wasn’t particularly worried about Naruto. True, he didn’t know much about the man’s situation, they had talked about several moment in their life, and Naruto had had a lot of funny anecdotes to share. He didn’t know about Naruto’s job, but he thought he had seen enough of his personality to be a good judge of character. Plus, no way was he going to act like a stalker.

“You’ll tell me what you find out?” Suigetsu asked hopefully.

“This is not an investigation, but yes I will.” Sasuke turned off the little lamp next to him. “Now you either go to sleep or you get out.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

When Naruto finally got home at twenty before two in the morning, he was greeted with the sight of his two best friend asleep on his couch. He retained a chuckle at seeing the position they were in.

Kiba was laying sideway, his feet were on the floor but his head was hanging in the air, completely off of the armrest of the couch, it looked like an awfully uncomfortable position. Sakura seemed to be in a more comfortable position, however she was definitely not helping with Kiba’s comfort. She laid on the couch but she was half sitting on Kiba, one of her foot tangling softly next to Kiba’s head, sometime grazing his cheek a little.

Naruto took a quick picture for future blackmail material then went to retrieve one of the spare blanket he kept in a closet. He covered them the best he could considering how they were situated then silently returned to his room, closing softly the door behind him and jumping under the covers after discarding his pants and shirt. He fell asleep with a big smile on his face.

He was woken up a little bit later in the morning by a wild Kiba. The man entered his room running and threw himself on the bed like a cannonball, almost jumping right on the sleeping form of Naruto. “Wake up!!!”

“Ugh..” Naruto groaned, trying to pull the cover over his head and hide in the bed. “Go away!”

“You need to get up for lunch with your dad anyway, dude. I want detail!”

Naruto poked his head from under the cover to look at the clock. “What the hell, dude?! It’s 6 in the morning, I don’t have to get up until noon!” 

“Yeah, but Sakura needs to leave for the hospital by 8 and she wanted to know before she left.”

There’s a scream coming from the kitchen. “Shut up, Kiba! I said I’d call him tomorrow!”

Kiba just grinned and looked at Naruto with a mischievous smile. “You naked?”

Naruto shook his head negatively in answer and Kiba quickly moved under the cover with him. “So? Did you have sexy times?”

Naruto sighed exasperatedly and gave up on going back to sleep. He turned on his back and addressed a mysterious smile to Kiba. “Since Sakura is the reason why you woke me up, I’ll wait for her.” He added louder. “Please take your time, Sakura!”

Sakura joined them about 15 minutes later, all ready to go to work with two cups of coffee in her hands. Naruto sat in his bed as she handed one to him. “Too much sugar and not enough caffeine, your favorite.”

“What about me?” Kiba asked looking at the second cup she held in her hand.

“You definitely don’t need more coffee in the morning.” She said to him with a frown.

Naruto took a large sip of his coffee before handing the cup to Kiba for him to finish it. He was not the only one that liked sugar too much. He waited for Kiba to be done with his first sip before answering the question they were both asking with their eyes “It went really well. There is definitely something there that I plan to pursue.” He smiled softly. “And no, we did not have sex.” He added for Kiba, looking at him at the corner of his eyes. 

Sakura smiled softly, happy for him. “Is there going to be a second date?”

“Definitely! I even got a kiss!”

Kiba seemed to perk up at that. “Was it a kiss, kissss, or just a ‘kiss’?”

“Oh for God’s sake, are you twelve?” Sakura exclaimed.

Naruto just laughed before answering. “It was a kissssssss.” He took care of putting a lot of emphasis on the ‘s’. “But we were kind of interrupted by one of his friend spying on us.”

“What an ass!” Kiba exclaimed full of indignation.

“You’d have done the same thing” said Sakura.

“Obviously, but I would not have been caught. I’m a cop, I can do subtlety.” 

“You subtle? Ha ha, my ass. A bull in a china shop is probably quieter than you are.” Naruto intruded, laughing.

Kiba was about to retort when they were interrupted by the sound of Naruto’s phone going off. Naruto looked at the device, puzzled. He was pretty sure he had turn it to vibration yesterday. He looked at the caller ID and was surprised to see the phone number of Hashirama Senju, Kingston assistant district attorney. Weird that a lawyer would start his day so early, especially on a Sunday morning. 

He shushed Kiba’s scandalize sound to answer. “Hello?” That was not his best reply, but it was 15 before 7, what could his interlocutor want?

“ _ Dr. Uzumaki? Hashirama Senju of the district attorney’s office. I was wondering if you’d be free today to study a case. _ ”

“Ugh… Isn’t it a bit early for that?” Naruto replied, still a little perplexed.

There was a brief pause on the other side of the line. “ _ I’m sorry, I hadn’t notice the time. My team and I have been working on this case all night.”  _ Another pause. “ _ Anyway, now that I have you on the line, we need an emergency consultation. The trial is tomorrow morning and you’ve been added to the witness list.” _

_ What the fuck, _ Naruto thought. This was a hell of a short notice, he could not really assess someone in such a short time. He had to get familiar with the case, then with the defense they were planning on having him help use, and more importantly with the accused.  _ One _ day was not enough.

“ _ Dr. Uzumaki? Are you still there?”  _ The worried voice of Senju came through the device.

“Yes, I’ll be at your office by 8.”

“ _ Thank you.”  _ The other answered, cutting the line without a goodbye.

Naruto sighed and looked at the two occupants of his bed. “I have to kick you out it seems.”

“What happened?” Kiba asked as Sakura was already getting up from the bed.

“Emergency case, I’ll have to cancel our gaming night.”

He quickly send a text to Konohamaru and his dad to tell them that he would have to skip lunch, also asking Konohamaru to move all his Monday morning appointments to somewhere else in the week the second he got into the office.

* * *

The next day had Naruto sitting at the back of the courtroom, with dark circles under his eyes. The previous day had not been successful. Either Hashirama’s case was completely nonexistent or the defendant was one hell of a liar and had succeed to pass Naruto's “insanity” test. 

To sum it up, the man had plead insanity after murdering his two children. This was in sort possible because you pretty much  _ had _ to be insane to do such things, but the reason that Hashirama doubted him - except for the fact that he loved putting people in jail - was that the defense had wait last minute to plead insanity. At the first trial, the accused had simply stood up when the judge was about to end the session to plead insanity. Hashirama was certain that this was simply a ploy to have more time - since they were obligated to give an extension of 30 days to investigate the new plea - and had asked Naruto to be an expert witness of the  _ sanity  _ of the defendant.

Easier said than done when the guy was definitely out of his mind. Now, if he was to be called to the stage he was pretty sure that the guy would get a light sentence, maybe two years in a psychiatric hospital and then released in society with promise to take medicaments and consult a psychologist weekly. If the guy had indeed a mental disorder, he thought it would be fair. But hell, why didn’t Senju called him before it was the eve of the trial. He could have given a better assessment and maybe he would not have had to face a frustrated lawyer all night trying to be sure that he was confident in his final diagnostic.

It was too late now to remove him from the witness list, so Senju had asked him to sit in the back, hoping that the defendant’s lawyer had not notice his name on the list of witness. Although, when Naruto saw Itachi Uchiha take place in the opposite council seat, he knew that they would not pass under the other man nose. Maybe it was better this way, they could ask for another trial and Naruto or another of his peer would have more time to assess the man’s personality.

Naruto got out of his head when Hashirama ended his closing argument without an interruption. It was the end of the trial and he had not been called forward, maybe Itachi had really not seen his name. The jury would lean towards the prosecutor's side without his witness.

“Before doing my closing, I would like to bring a last witness to the stand.” Itachi declared to the crowd. He turned to Naruto with a small smirk on his face. “I would like to bring an expert witness."

“Objection! It is not time for more witness, your honor.” Senju tried, in vain.

“Overruled. This is your witness after all counselor.” The judge made a sign for Itachi to continue.

“I would like, Dr. Uzumaki, a psychologist who spend sometimes with my client to come to the front.”

Naruto stood up, wiping his clammy hands on his pants, and started toward the witness stand.

“Nice to see you in court again, Dr. Uzumaki.” Itachi started and Naruto nodded politely in answer to the man. “Could you tell us what is your impression on what was my client state of mind at the time he committed the crime?” 

Naruto looked at the pinch face Senju was sporting and sighed internally. “In my professional opinion, after the short time I spent with the accused, it seems fair to say that he was not conscious of his acts when he carried out the crime.”

Itachi’s mouth lifted a little. “Do you think there is a chance of recidivism?”

“It is not improbable. However, the man shows clear sign of guilt when the event is mentioned.”

“What about the fact that he does not remember his actions?”

“This could either be due to a complete blackout, in which case he could definitely be consider not responsible. It could also be a sign of trauma, where he shut out all memories about this night because of his guilt.”

“Obj-” Started Senju.

The judge interrupted him by hitting his gavel once. “Overruled. I’ve had enough. We’ll have a brief recess for the jury to render their decision and we’ll come back with a verdict.” He hit twice more. “Court adjourned.”

Itachi went back to his table to whispered something to his client before shaking hand with him. Naruto watched the crowd disperse outside of the room from his position on the stand. Senju seemed ready to pounce on him and he did not want anyone to be in the room when it happened. He had only been doing his job anyway.

Luckily for him, when he stood up to face the older attorney, Itachi came toward him. Naruto had not even notice that he was still in the courtroom.

“For the first time, I can say honestly that it was a pleasure working with you, Dr. Uzumaki.”

Naruto rolled his eyes comically but smiled amicably at Itachi. “Maybe next time I’ll actually be working for you.”

“I am sure the pay is way better on our side.” He looked at Senju who seemed to be pouting behind his table. “And we don’t hold any grudges.”

“Are you asking me to come to the dark side?”

Itachi laughed softly and in that moment Naruto thought that he remembered him of someone else. “We live in a gray world, Naruto.” He said before patting the blonde on the shoulder. “Are you staying for the verdict?”

“Yeah, I’ll hang in the back. Maybe try to catch a power nap before they return.”

They both smiled and split way. Itachi heading out of the courtroom as Naruto headed toward a bench in the back. He was relieved when he noticed that the ADA had left during his conversation with Itachi. 

He sat on the bench and looked at his watch, the deliberation was sure to take at least half an hour, he could sleep for awhile.

He was woken up a little under an hour later when the door to the courtroom were closed noisily. The judge promptly entered the room after that and started delivering the decision.

“First, I must say that I am not proud of the ADA for trying to prevent an expert testimony. I would be more careful in the future, Mr Senju. Second, the jury came to a verdict and the accused is declared not responsible. He’ll be sent to an hospital for the duration of a year to treat his problems, and if the doctors see him fit after that, he’ll be released in society with the obligation to visit a therapist every week for the rest of his life.”

The man next to Itachi let out a soft cry before hugging his reluctant attorney. Looking at him, Naruto thought that maybe the man had been genuine. Maybe this sentence was a good thing, maybe it was fair - after all the man would live with the guilt for the rest of his life and it was bound to hurt him much more than prison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all!  
> New chapter is up and it took me a bit less than a month, hooray! It's a bit after 2 AM as I post this so I'm sorry if there are some mistakes in the text, I'll try to go over it during the weekend - it should not have been that bad though.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed it! (:


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holla! Just a quick note to say that there are some French words in this chapter, the translations are in the note at the end.  
> Hope you enjoy!

_Good morning! (:_

Naruto and Sasuke had been texting regularly since their date 4 days before. They had not set another meeting yet, but Naruto was determined to rectify this today. He quickly followed his first text with another, no matter what Sakura would say about the horror of double texting.

_Wanna meet 4 lunch?_

Naruto couldn’t help but smile knowing that Sasuke was going to reproach him his awful spelling. He had never met someone so finical on spelling mistakes, even his professors when he was still at university had used a lot of abbreviations and shortcuts in their communications with him.

He does not wait for an answer before getting out of his bed to get ready. Sasuke does not seem to have a fixed schedule in the morning so he could receive an answer in the next seconds or two hours from now. Anyway he was in no rush, it was barely 7 and he had to work the morning at the prison anyway. If Sasuke said yes, he would ask if he mind meeting him to a restaurant about half way from here and the prison - it would be about a 20 minutes ride for both of them and Naruto only has an hour and a half break, he would not have time to head back to Kingston.

Sasuke answered his text just before he was about to turn his phone off to enter the prison. He made a sign to Gaara to wait a minute.

_Of course, do you want me to meet you somewhere? I am picking up a rental car this morning._

_Gr8t! I’ll txt u the address. 13h?_

_Perfect._

Naruto quickly googled the exact address of the restaurant he had in head before pasting it in his conversation with Sasuke. He turned off his phone after that and walked to Gaara. The man was waiting for him next to the door that lead to the employees barrack.

“Having a chat with lover boy?” Gaara asked teasingly.

“How do you know?”

“Naruto, you’ll have to wipe that huge smile of your face if you don’t want to look like you belong with the crazy in there.”

Naruto frowned. “You could be a little more respectful.”

“You’re never going to convince me that anyone in there deserves respect, Naruto. We’ve established that long ago.”

“Gaara…” Naruto said looking at the other one sadly.

The redhead rolled his eyes. “Don’t give me those eyes. I’m just here to let you in, one of my guy is waiting for you in the usual room. He has order to stay with you. Inside.”

“Huh? Why? You know I need to be alone when I meet Dei’.”

“I can’t believe you have a nickname for that man. You’re not meeting him, though. He got in a fight and he is in isolation. Ibushi - the man waiting for you - will give you the new file when you get to him.”

Naruto frowned, a little worried. He had not met with Deidara last Saturday for the same reason. What the hell was happening with the other man? He used to be a pretty calm inmate before. Nonetheless, he made his way to the room where his new patient was waiting.

The man waiting for him there was tall, easily half a foot higher than him, and Naruto was definitely not small. However, he seemed to shrink a little when he welcomed Naruto, seemingly intimidated by him. That was weird, the blonde was pretty sure that he did not have the reputation of a bully in this jail, the only time he had lost his patience with a correctional officer was that one time when the guy insisted to stay in the room with him and Deidara.

Naruto smiled brightly to the man, trying to relieve the tension, and extended a hand to shake with the man’s and introduce himself. The C.O., however, did not took his hand, he only gave him the patient’s file without saying a word to him.

 _Not a talkative one,_ Naruto thought, looking at the paper he now had in hands. He briefly skimmed over them before asking for the door to be opened.

Upon entering, followed by the tall silhouette of Ibushi, his gaze immediately fell to the man sitting at the table, his wrist cuffed on the thick ring of metal weld on top of it. The man had grey hair and distinctive _purple_ eyes. Naruto did a double take, _what the hell?_ Inmate were definitely not allowed to wear contact in here. That was definitely a weird sight to fall upon. He was going to ignore it to the best of his capacity.

It turned out that ignoring the physical characteristics of the other man was pretty easy, especially when the other man started spouting insult at them in _French_. Naruto blinked a couple times, remembering when Deidara had told him about his new cellmate, he could put a name and a face to the man now.

Naruto went to sit in front of him, trying to keep his face as neutral as possible. He waited for a break in Hidan’ speech - the man needed to breath after all - before interrupting him.

“Hello, Hidan. My name is Naruto, I am a psychologist and I’m here to speak with you.”

Hidan laughed. “T’es un _fucking_ imbécile si tu penses que je vais daigner te parler! Seulement Dieu est digne de moi.*”

It took everything for Naruto to keep his exasperation internal. He didn’t understand most of the things the other man had said, but he could guess that it was far from nice. “Hidan, I just -”

“Ta gueule! Ta gueule!**” Hidan screamed at him, banging both fists on the table, before starting with another row of insults.

“Doctor?” The man, Ibushi, had gotten closer to him to stand right behind his chair and was now trying to whisper in his ear. Naruto ignored him his eyes still fixed on the screaming man before him. “Dr. Uzumaki,” He started more forcefully, “I think maybe we should adjourn and return him to his cell.”

Naruto looked back at him briefly before addressing him. “If you can’t take it, send me someone who isn’t scared to replace you and don’t interrupt us again.”

Surprisingly this had the effect to stop Hidan’s monologue. He laughed sardonically at Ibushi. “Know your fucking place, insect.”

He saw the other man take a step toward Hidan. He stood up and put his hand on his bicep to stop his motion. “Don’t. Just go wait by the door.” He told him before sitting back down.

Hidan snorted. “I still ain’t speaking shit to you about my past.”

Naruto already felt triumphant at simply being addressed in a language that he understood. He crossed his legs, trying to distract Hidan with a larger movement while his right hand went to the inside of his jacket pocket to turn on the voice recorder he kept there. He often took notes manually but he was pretty sure that the other man would be insulted with that. He would have to transcribed the audio at work Monday.

“We don’t have to talk about that. You mentioned God, _Dieu,_ tell me about him.”

Hidan smirked. “I’m his right hand man, the best he ever had.”

“What makes you so good?”

“I do what he wants, that’s my job.”

“He asks you for favors?”

Hidan lean a little toward him and whispered. “He doesn’t have to, that’s why I’m so good. I just _know_ what he needs, je le _sens_.***”

Naruto lean toward him too, showing him that he had his entire attention. “This must be an honour indeed. He does not even have to communicate with you through speech or vision.” He made it as a statement but it was more of a question, wanting to be perfectly certain that the other man was not suffering from auditory or visual hallucinations.

“Exactly! We have an exceptional relationship. That’s because I’m fucking awesome, you know? He chose me, not any other stupid human. Not even _you_!”

 _Yeah, lucky me,_ Naruto thought. It did not take much after that to have Hidan start talking about his duty to god and all the things he had done in order to keep the man, the _divinity_ , happy. When it was time for Hidan to go back to his cell, he even told Naruto that he wasn’t ‘too bad for a miserable pest’.

“What a crazy psychopath.” Ibushi murmured. Luckily for him, Naruto was the only one to hear him since Hidan was back at insulting the new men entering the room.

“You should have your name removed from psychological duty, before I have it removed myself.” Naruto said angrily to Ibushi, after the two C.O. that had come fetch Hidan had gone, leaving them both alone in the room, waiting for the next inmate. Alright, maybe Naruto could be a bitch sometimes.

* * *

Naruto entered the restaurant in a hurry, he was already 15 minutes late to his date with Sasuke. His patient after Hidan had took a bit longer than he had planned. He hadn’t seen the man, Nagato, for a month because he had try to end his life and had ended up at the infirmary for 3 weeks to heal his wounds. Naruto had wanted to go see him, he was his patient after all, but they had kept him in an artificial coma since the other man would try to hurt himself each time he woke up. They had finally woke him up the day before and Naruto had finally been allowed to see him. Visits with Nagato were always hard on him, the man was just so miserable and sad, not at all like the other patients he had at the prison who most often reeked of anger.

Once inside, he looked around quickly, searching for a dark mop of hair. A smile broke on his face when he noticed the man sitting a couple feet away from the entrance, slowly flipping through the menu.

“Sorry, I’m late.” Naruto said as he made his way to Sasuke. He stopped in front of the other man and quickly bent to give a soft peck on Sasuke’s lips, freezing afterward in surprise. “Was that alright?” He asked uncertain.

Sasuke blushed, a little surprise but nonetheless pleased. “More than.”

Now that he knew that it was fine, Naruto bent once again to press his lips to Sasuke’s letting the contact last a little longer than before. He could feel Sasuke’s lips stretch in a small smile as he slowly retreat, finally going to sit in the free chair right in front of him.

“How pathetic do I sound if I say that I missed you?” Naruto asked.

“As pathetic as I do when I answered that I did too.”

Naruto laughed softly, extending his hand to touch one of Sasuke’s. “I’m glad the feeling is mutual.” He said, squeezing Sasuke’s fingers lightly.

“So, what’s good around here?”

Naruto gave him an excited look, happy to answer. “Ah! You’re asking the good question. They have amazing ramen!”

“Why do I have the feeling that you come here pretty often?” Sasuke asked teasingly.

“Not that oft-”

“Hey, Naruto!” A waitress on her way to the kitchen exclaimed when she noticed them. She diverged path to come to their table. “You guys ready to order? I know you’re usually on a tight schedule to go back to work.”

Naruto blushed and looked at Sasuke who was smiling with satisfaction. “He’ll take the same as usual, twice.”  

“Alrighty! I’ll tell dad it’s for you, should be about 10 minutes.” She winked at him, before turning to leave for the kitchen.

“Thanks, Ayame!” Naruto said, having seemingly recover his voice.

“I’ve been coming here since I was 5. Every year on my birthday, my parents would bring me here.” He passed his finger slowly through his bright blond hair, resting his hand at the back a little. “I still come with my dad and my brother every year, but they don’t know that I come here pretty much every week.”

Sasuke felt like getting up and hugging him. The man seemed a little uncomfortable with what he had just share. “It is a nice place. I’m glad to be here with you.” He turned the hand that was still under one of Naruto’s and twisted it so that he could interlace their fingers together. Naruto smiled warmly at him and Sasuke felt his heart melt just a little more.

They looked at each other silently until their food came and then ate in the same comfortable silence, only broken by the slurping sounds that Naruto was not always able to control.

When they were both done and the waitress, Ayame, had bring them their receipt, Sasuke noticed that Naruto was looking at his watch with a slight pout. “How long do you have left.”

“35 minutes.”

“Hn. I’ll go pay and then we can head outside.”

Naruto stood up. “It’s my turn to pay. You paid that first time.”

“So that was a date, then?” Sasuke asked teasingly, before handing the receipt to Naruto.

“Of course it was!”

They both made their way to the counter. “According to my friend, you’re suppose to tell me if you’re a serial killer by the fifth date.”

Naruto cackled. “I swear I’m not.”

“It doesn’t count if it’s not the fifth date.” Sasuke grinned

After paying, and leaving a generous tip, they ended up in front of Sasuke’s car. “This is pretty fancy for a rental.” Naruto whistled.

“Are you going to give me a tour?” The blonde asked with a suggestive smirk.

Sasuke smirked and came close to Naruto, his side brushing against him as he opened the back door. “Please make yourself at home.”

Naruto giddily climbed on the backseat of the Jaguar E-Pace. He slid to the other side of the bench, removed his shoes and patted the black leather while looking suggestively at Sasuke.

The second Sasuke closed the door behind him, they were on each other. Their lips clashed sharply and Naruto’s arms drifted to Sasuke’s waist to bring them even closer before grabbing onto the collar of his shirt with both hands

Warmth radiated from where their chest were touching and Naruto moaned softly as Sasuke sucked gently on his lower lips. He opened his mouth to deepen the kiss when he felt the other man’s tongue against his lips. It was hot, wet, and sloppy but _god_ did Naruto loved it.

The feeling of the tongue slowly dancing against his made him feel like he was about to explode, he wanted so much more. When Sasuke grabbed his hair and pulled a little, separating their mouth for a brief instant he couldn’t contain his groan. “Sas’ke…”

The sounds of his name on Naruto’s lips rendered Sasuke all hot, even hotter than he already was. Still holding the other man’s hair tightly, he leaned closer to kiss his neck, feeling the fast heartbeat against his lips he started sucking delicately, hearing Naruto gasping harshly against his ear. The feeling of Naruto’s throat vibrating slightly against his lips each time the other man moaned was going to make him lose control. He had to stop himself from biting at the neck under his mouth as Naruto dragged him back to his face to kiss him some more.

They finally broke the kiss, feeling the other’s breath against their face as they breathed labouringly. “When am I gonna see you next?’ Naruto asked, his lips still brushing against Sasuke’s with each movements as he spoke.

Sasuke released Naruto’s hair and brought one of his hand to the other man’s face, he skimmed his thumb on the other’s lower lips. “I have to go buy a car next Thursday, will you come with me? We could have dinner first.”

Naruto nipped on Sasuke’s thumb before answering against it. “Hmm, I’d love to.” He brought Sasuke’s finger in his mouth, suckling on it softly. He started sucking a little harder when he heard Sasuke groaned. This man was driving him crazy.

They both jumped when Naruto’s cell phone started ringing, Naruto biting a little on Sasuke’s finger in his surprise. “Fuck...” The raven muttered out of breath.

Naruto looked down at his phone. “It’s Gaara, I should have been back fifteen minutes ago.” He looked back at Sasuke, who seemed to still have trouble with his breathing. “You okay?” He asked with laughter in his voice.

“I might need sometimes.”

“Hahaha, God you’re great. Let’s have dinner at my place this Friday. Next Thursday is way too far for me.”

Sasuke faked a reflection. “I think I can free a spot for you in my busy schedule.”

“I’ll cook for you. What do you like to eat?”

Sasuke blushed. “Anything with tomatoes?”

“I’ll figure something out.” He grabbed the back of Sasuke’s neck to bring him into a last kiss. “I have to go, but I’ll text you!”

Grabbing his shoes on the floor, Naruto leaped out of the car, running toward his own vehicle. He’d have to thing of some nasty shit to get rid of his arousal before he got back to the prison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *T’es un fucking imbécile si tu penses que je vais daigner te parler! Seulement Dieu est digne de moi: You're fucking stupid if you think that I would talk to you! Only God is worth of me.  
> **Ta gueule: Shut up  
> ***Je le sens: I can feel it
> 
> I hope I'll see you soon!


	15. Chapter 15

Naruto had gotten the call from the hospital the next morning as he was getting a coffee from Starbuck before going to the office. The man on the phone, a doctor, had told him that they had a patient of him at the hospital and that they needed him to come by since he had been requested. The doctor had not given any more specific indications, only saying that the so told patient was Hidan.

He encounter quickly the good room, easily noticeable with the two bulky men standing guard in front of it. He made his way to them and asked for a brief description of the situation as to not go in blind. They told him that the prisoner’s cell mate had started screaming earlier that morning and when they got there they had found Deidara trying to prevent Hidan from dying hanging at the end of the rope he had made out of his bedsheets. The man had still been alive, but passed out, and they had to have him transferred here from the jail hospital since Hidan was suffering from low blood oxygenation. Once he had woken up at the hospital two hours ago, the man was declared as suffering from no sequel but he had refused to talk to anyone, he only asked for Naruto when he woke up and had not uttered a word since then.

Naruto blinked a couple of  time after hearing the story. Hidan had certainly not seem like the suicidal type when he had met him the day before. The guy was arrogant, completely full of himself, and had a huge god complex. Naruto had almost automatically thought that he had Grandiose Delusional Disorder, but maybe it was not only that. This disorder was known to have a high comorbidity with schizophrenia and bipolarity after all.

He thanked the two officers at the door before rapping his knuckle softly on the door and pushing the door open. “Hey, I was surprised to hear that you requested me.”

The man in the bed seemed to feel relief when he saw him. Naruto looked at the red mark around Hidan’s neck and felt a wave of sadness overwhelming him. He might not know Hidan very well - he had only met him yesterday after all - but he felt an ache inside of him. It was the first time that one of his own patient had tried to hurt themselves willingly.

“Naruto, man, you need to help me.”

“Of course, Hidan. That’s why I’m here after all.” He came to sit on the only chair next to the bed where Hidan was laying, looking pale in contrast with the vibrant red of his neck.

“I can’t go back there, you have to help me.”

“I’m going to do my best to help you. I’ll request a transfer for you the the Regional Psychiatric Centre.”

“You’re moving me with the crazies?” Hidan screamed indignantly. “You fucking traitor! I’ll kill you the second I’m out of this bed!”

Naruto only stared back. “No you won’t. You know that this is not one of God’s plan.”

Hidan started thrashing on the bed, his cuff clinging against the bar where it was tied. “You understand me! I know you do. Why won’t you help me? _Please,_ aide moi...”

The noise attracted the two correctional officers that were standing outside and they both entered the room menacingly, bringing a nurse with them. She got close to the bed, although not close enough to be reached if Hidan decided he wanted to. “Sir? I’m going to give you something to relax.” She said softly, a small tremor in her voice.

“Don’t you fucking drug me, bitch!” He hissed at her before shifting quickly his gaze on Naruto, looking at him pleadingly. “Don’t let her, please!”

Naruto stood up to walk to the trembling nurse. He put his hand lightly on her shoulder. “You should go back outside, I’ll call you if we need anything.”

She looked at him with scared eyes before nodding and walking out of the room briskly, almost colliding with one of the C.O. still standing near the door. Naruto looked at them next. “Same things apply to you, guys.”

“You sure, Doc’? I know you’re tough, but there’s always someone tougher.”

“It’s fine, just go wait outside. Don’t come back in unless _I_ am the one screaming.”

The one who had addressed him seem to hesitate briefly but he finally agreed to leave after another reassuring look from Naruto, quickly followed by his partner outside.

Naruto returned to the bed and brought his chair closer to Hidan before sitting back down. “Are you going to tell me why you tried to kill yourself?”

“It wasn’t my decision.” Hidan pointed exaggeratedly to the ceiling. “ _Dieu,_ it was _his_ plan.”

“You felt that it was what he would want?”

“No. No, he told me.”

Naruto frowned, perplex. Yesterday Hidan had seemed adamant that God did not talk directly to him, that he could simply feel what he wanted. “What did he told you? His exact words.”

“He said that all his deeds on Earth were done.” Hidan beamed, a smile so huge on his face that it was almost scary. “He said that I’d be able to join him in heaven.”

Naruto hummed, thinking about what he could answer to that. “Maybe he didn’t mean right now, Hidan. Maybe he simply wanted you to know that he’d be ready for you when you were done doing your _own_ things, not only his. You’ve accomplish everything he wanted. Now you can do what _you_ want and he’ll be keeping a place right next to him just for you.”

Hidan frowned. “Do you really think so?”

No, Naruto did not think so. This was probably the craziest lie he had ever said in his life but no way was he going to admit it right now. Hidan was sick, and Naruto thought that it was _possible_ for him to get better. If he had to go along with the man’s hallucinations to push him on the right path, he would do so. Even if it was not particularly pleasant. “I do.”

“Anyway,” Hidan shook the hand that was cuffed to the bed. “It’s not like there’s lots of things that I can do now, I got a fucking life sentence. 25 shit years without parole eligibility.”

“Well, I am no lawyer but this isn’t necessary set in stone. You could always appeal, ask to be retried.”

“Doc, I got my freaking sentence 2 months ago, nothing has changed since.”

Naruto sighed, Gaara would probably be trying to choke him with his bare hand if he could see him right now. Helping criminal to get lighter sentence was not Gaara’s favorite thing about Naruto’s job. “They don’t mention anywhere in your file that you have a psychological disorder. If you get that transfer I mention, they can diagnose you properly there and help you. After a year or two of good conduct you should be able to appeal and get a reduce sentence.”

“‘Psychological disorder’ is your fancy as fuck way to say that I’m crazy, right?”

“Not crazy, but sick. This is probably due to an imbalance of neurotransmitters in you brain and - ”

Hidan interrupted him violently. “Enough! I don’t wanna hear it.” He tried to cross his arm on his chest but his movement was cut short because of his restrain. “I’ll do whatever you fucking want. You’ll have to get me another lawyer though, they gave me a fucking shitty one last time.”

“Deal!” Naruto said, extending his right hand to Hidan so they could shake on it. The gray haired man took it, a surprised look on his face. “And I know the perfect person to handle your case!” Naruto added quickly, however his excitation dropped pretty fast when he remembered that the person he was thinking about would not necessarily still be alive by then. _What a sad world we live in,_ he thought to himself.

 

30 minutes later found Naruto at the jail, rapidly making his way to the warden’s office. He knocked sharply on the door twice and entered without waiting for an answer, a gloomy look on his face.

“Hey, kid!” Jiraiya said when he saw him in the door, closing his portable computer in a flash. “What can I do for you?”

A frown of reproach appeared on Naruto’s face. “You were watching porn. At work. Again.”

“Hehehe, only doing some research.”

Naruto sighed, nothing could ever change his godfather, not even old age. He entered the room and closed the door behind him before going to sit in one of the chair in front of Jiraiya’s desk.

“I’m here to request a transfer, I’ll need the paperwork.”

Jiraiya pouted, and lifted his computer screen. They both ignored the soft moans that came from the speaker before Jiraiya could closed the open tab. “Of course you’re not here only to talk to your dear old man. When you were young you couldn’t shut up about it every time a little girl or boy fell into your eyes, now I need to get the information from other sources.”

“Did my dad call you?”

Jiraiya shook his head negatively, searching the files on his computer for the proper papers to print.

“Konohamaru?”

“A professional never reveal his sources, Naruto.”

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.”

“Transferring to Saskatoon again? If you continue like this I’ll start believing that you’re sending all you patients there to not lose them when you move away.”

Naruto accepted the change in subject with relief. He was in a bad mood due to what had happened this morning with Hidan, and he did not want to speak about Sasuke when he was feeling like that. He’d be glad to talk to his godfather at a better time when this little transfer problem was solved.

“I’m surprised you remember. I haven’t spoken about moving there to work since I was halfway through my PhD, 4 years ago.”

“We might not speak that often, especially considering that we spend two whole days in the same building, but I do listen when you talk, kid.”

Naruto smiled brightly. “We could have dinner with granny Tsunade sometimes soon. I could tell you about my boyfriend without having you fishing for secondhand informations.”

“Ah! Got them!” Jiraiya exclaimed as he found what he was looking for. He walked toward the huge printer in the corner of the office. “I’ll let you ask your godmother. If your brat of a brother hasn’t share the information with her she’ll be mad to know that I found out first, and I don’t want to be the one to tell her.”

Naruto laughed. “How can you fall asleep next to her every night knowing that you hide such dark secrets?”

Jiraiya coughed a little before answering. “What she doesn’t know, doesn’t hurt me.” He turned his back on Naruto to grabbed the stake of papers from the printer.

“You have no shame.”

Jiraiya could only smile at him, happy with himself since Naruto seemed to be feeling a bit better than when he had entered his office if he was to belief the laughing look on the younger man’s face.

“Here.” Jiraiya quickly bent over his desk to sign his name at all the appropriate places on the forms before pushing them toward Naruto. “I’ll let you fill out the rest, I have work to go back to.”

“Have fun!” Naruto said with a wink as he took his leave.

* * *

Sasuke was sitting at his huge oak desk in his office, turning on his  chair with contemplation. Yesterday, he had forgotten to ask Naruto about his job _again._ It’s not like he did not have the occasion or anything, he was meeting the man between his work shift, him asking what he did would not have been weird. It would have been normal. But he had not. He had plan on asking the other man right after he had come in, but Naruto had come and had kiss him to say hi and every thought of the other’s job had left his mind.

But _now_ , now that he was all by himself in his office, and that the high of their kisses, had mostly dissipated, he was curious. Naruto was a doctor, he knew that, that was one of the first thing the man had told him. However, these days, being a doctor could mean anything - Sasuke himself had a doctorate in human biology and you can have PhD in mathematics and all other fields of science, or art. The doctor title didn’t help him much, but there was not much job for a doctor in a prison, right? He was probably a doctor _doctor_ as in practicing medicine with the prisoners. _He’d definitely look good in a lab coat,_ Sasuke thought. That was the most probable idea.

Nevertheless, Sasuke had done some research on how jail life worked for his book and had found that sometimes they would have guest at the prison to entertain the criminal. So maybe Naruto had some kind of PhD in sculpture and was giving pottery course. That sounded stupid even to him.

Sasuke sighed and stopped the movement of his chair, he was getting a little dizzy after all this time. He wanted to know what Naruto did, and honestly he didn’t want Suigetsu to keep bugging him about it. The man had gone back to London Friday night and had succeeded in extracting the promises from Sasuke that he’d write to him everyday, and that he’d tell him as soon as he knew what was the job of the ‘mysterious criminal you have a crush on’. Suigetsu had already texted him about it thrice today, and it was only 9 am - although it was probably around 15 now in the UK. Curiosity and annoyance made him pull himself closer to his desk and open his portable computer. It was time to do some research then.

He quickly opened a search tab on internet and typed _Naruto Uzumaki, Kingston_. He was not planning on doing a lot of research on him, just maybe look if he had a linkedIn page or something similar.

The first result on the top of the page seemed to be from an article of the local newspaper. He thought about not opening it for a moment but the title catched his eyes and he resolved himself in opening it.

_December 14, 2009_

_The Uzumaki family mourns_

_Today is a sad day for the entire community of Kingston. The mayor, Minato Namikaze, had given his resignation from his post to focus more on his family. Sources say that this sudden decision is due to the recent death of his wife, Kushina Uzumaki. The man did not mention in details the reason of his departure during the press conference, only saying that it was time he took care of his own family and -_

Sasuke stopped his reading abruptly, feeling like he was intruding in a part of Naruto’s life that he had not been given access yet. He stared at the words on the page and scrolled to see how long the article was. There were still several pages left, most of them seeming to talk about how great of a mayor Namikaze was and all of his exploits. At the end of the article, there was a picture of two men, both with bright blonde hair and blue eyes. The taller one was looking at the camera with a sad smile and had his left arm draped around the smaller man, Naruto.

Sasuke zoomed in on the picture a little and was surprised to see how young Naruto looked - yes this was from almost 10 years ago but it was still a little surprising to see. The young man was half turned toward his father and tears seemed to shine at the corner of his eyes. Sasuke’s breath caught in his throat and he closed the tab and his computer abruptly. He should definitely not look at this, even if it was public knowledge.

He pushed his computer on the corner of his desk and took out one of his notebook. He was not sure if he’d be able to write anything good in his state, but at least it would distract him a little from his own thoughts.  


* * *

Itachi was nervous today and it was starting to reflect on his behaviour. The day had started as usual, with him going over some cases in his office inside his law firm. He had had everything under control, he had met with several clients, still remaining his usual self, but as the day advance he started feeling jittery. Just fifteen minutes ago he had spilled his entire cup of coffee over important documents while he was having a reunion with some partners of his firm.

The looks the men and women in the room had given him when he had dropped a loud ‘Fuck!’ would have made him laugh if he was not already so overwhelmed with other emotions. Instead he had excused himself from the reunion and had sent his secretary to clean the mess, telling her that he would be leaving early that day.

The reason of his nervousness was about to explode in his face. Today was the day he would get a look at the first result of the experimental treatment that could possibly remove the type of tumor he had. The doctor in charge of his treatment was also one of the doctors in charge of the project, and she had said that she’d be ready to share with him what they had found today. He was currently waiting in her office, having been told that it should not be long since she was just scrubbing out of an operation.

He was at the point of pacing on the ceramic floor of the office, when the door finally opened to let through the pink haired doctor.

“Mr. Uchiha.” She saluted respectfully with a nod when she saw him.

“Dr. Haruno.”

“I’m afraid that there is nothing good to say.” She said going to her desk to open the top drawer and retrieve a letter for him to open.

  
He took the envelope in his shaking hands and read through it quickly. Out of the five individuals that had already had the surgery, 3 were dead on the table, 1 had died after 3 days of coma, and 1 was still in a comatose state. _Fuck_ , Itachi thought, his eyes glistening with unshed tears, _that’s it, I’m dead._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, y'all!  
> It's crazy how procrastinating my studies make me more efficient in posting chapters for this story.  
> I don't think I'll be able to post until November now, though.  
> Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
